A Little's Enough
by keeeerstie
Summary: Rinoa was forced out of her beloved town of Timber by Galbadian soldiers. She made her way to Balamb with no money and no friends. There, she meets tons of new people... including Squall Leonhart.
1. Balamb

**well, here goes nothin'! i'm not too happy with the first few chapters of this, but hopefully you guys will feel differently. :D keep in mind... 1. this is my first fanfic, and 2. i get stuck really easily**

**note**- **this is called "A Little's Enough" for a reason. and, as cliche as this will sound, it's the title of a song. i was listening to a song the other night, called "A Little's Enough" (by Angels and Airwaves) and it basically summed up everything i've been wanting for this whole story. i decided i'll put the lyrics on my profile if you're interested in seeing how exactly they fit in. anyway... there ya go, that's my title.**

**ohh... annnd... i need a disclaimer. so...**

**disclaimer-**while i desperately wish i did, i do not own Final Fantasy VIII, or any of its wonderfully constructed characters.

**Chapter One**

It was a cool evening, sometime around sunset. It had been a warm, beautiful day in the seaside town of Balamb.

A dark-haired, teenage girl sat at the beach with her knees curled into her chest, her head resting on her knees, and her face tuned toward the slowly setting sun. You would almost think she was sleeping, if it were not for the fact that there were tears falling slowly down her face. However, since no one was around, she didn't bother covering her face, or even wiping the tears away. She thought, though, that even if someone had been there, she would have continued her crying. And, given the circumstances, she should have continued anyway.

The reason for her tears was that the town she loved more than any other place in the entire world, Timber, was being run by the Galbadian president, and _had_ been run by him for quite some time. While she had still been a resident of Timber, she had been a member of a resistance faction called the Forest Owls. The Forest Owls had been working very hard to find any way they could think of to bring the president's reign to an end, because his reign had come as the result of an invasion by his Galbadian soldiers. However, they had had no luck in running the Galbadians out of their town, and had ultimately been run out of town themselves by numerous Galbadian death threats.

But, while the hardship of Timber and its townspeople were certainly a reason to cry, that wasn't the only reason for this girl's tears. Upon being run out of town by Galbadian soldiers, the Forest Owls had gotten separated, leaving her alone and reasonably poor. She wasn't sad because of her being alone, though; more for her friends. She had no way of finding out where they were, or if they were okay, or even if they had made it far enough away to stay alive. All she could do was hope that they were, like her, in one piece and not completely starving.

As she sat alone on the beach, she thought back to how she had actually found her way to this town in the first place.

She had gone to the train station in the nearest town (Timber's trains were no longer in service due to the Galbadians), and asked the workers where the farthest she could get was, with the amount of money she had. They had told her about Balamb; how it was a small, seaside town, and how everyone there was nice. They'd said everyone in Balamb was like one big family. She had thought this sounded like the best place she could possibly go to on so little funds, and bought the ticket right then and there. Upon arriving in Balamb, she had immediately retreated to the beach.

Now, she sat there wondering what on earth she was going to do. She had no where to stay, hardly any means of buying something to eat, and she was utterly alone in this town. Sure, the people here were like family, but that could also be a bad thing for an outsider like herself. As she watched the sun fall behind the shoreline, she found herself wishing she wasn't such a spontaneous person. She should have thought this through a little bit more! But, what was done was done, and there was no going back now.

As soon as the tears decided to stop falling from her eyes, she stood up, and brushed the sand off of her. She took one last look at the beautiful ocean, and turned to her left to go back to the main part of the town. However, as soon as she turned, she found herself back on the sand again, and heard a nervous giggle from somewhere in front of her. Then, a tiny little hand was being held out to her, and she was being helped up, and she was standing face to face with a very pretty, very small, very red girl.

She had short, bouncy, light brown hair, and very green eyes. She was wearing bright yellow, and looked like she would be the cheeriest person in the entire world, let alone the entire town of Balamb.

"I'm so sorry," the flushed girl was saying, "I'm just so clumsy and I can't help but run into someone every three minutes! But, I saw you here by yourself, and I didn't recognize you… so I thought maybe you might be new here? I came to welcome you to our town! And introduce myself, of course. I'm Selphie, what's your name?" She said all of this in one breath.

"Oh, it's all right," the girl with the dark hair replied. "I should have been watching where I was going more closely. Yes, I am new here… and, my name is Rinoa." She smiled.

"_Rinoa_… that's beautiful! Well, Rinoa, what brings you here to Balamb? Anything in particular? I bet you came to see the ocean, huh?"

Rinoa giggled a little in spite of herself. Selphie gave off these waves of excitement, happiness, and hyperactivity that were hard to ignore, even for someone who had just met her.

"Well," Rinoa started, "I, uh… there was, um, some trouble… back where I lived, and I had to leave. I just sort of… ended up here." She finished it off with a shrug to show that she really didn't know how on earth she had gotten there.

"Trouble, huh? Well, I'm very sorry… but I'm glad you came to Balamb! Now, I have a new friend. Would you like me to show you around the town?" she asked.

Rinoa looked at Selphie's smiling, excited face, and found she really couldn't say no. She was very tired from all the things that had been happening in the past few weeks, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up somewhere and go to sleep, but she thought that it might be fun to see the town with Selphie for a bit. So, Rinoa grinned at Selphie and nodded her approval of the tour.

"Yaaay!" Selphie exclaimed, jumping up and down with contagious enthusiasm. She then grabbed Rinoa's hand as if they had been friends since the day they were born, and steered her away from the beach, toward the main part of town.

They quickly reached a place where there were many lights, and Rinoa assumed this must be the place where most people were at this time of night. To Rinoa's right was a beautiful hotel that had many balconies overlooking the sea. Here, you could hear the seagulls even more than from the beach itself, and you could smell the salty sea air. There were people scattered here and there, and Rinoa could tell they felt just as peaceful as she did at this particular spot.

Up ahead of the hotel, there were some houses, and a few shops and restaurants. There was also a pub, a pet shop, and an old-fashioned-looking ice cream shop. To the left of that was the train station Rinoa had arrived at earlier. And, scattered around in random places, there was always a house or two, or a few people here and there.

When they arrived at each place, Selphie would explain what it was, or tell a funny story of one of the times she and her friends had been there before. But before long, the tour was over, because Balamb really was just a very small town. So, they decided they would sit down on a bench outside of the hotel, because that was where Rinoa liked it best.

"So, Rinoa!" Selphie said happily once they had sat down, "how do you like Balamb?"

"Oh, it's beautiful! It's really the perfect town… just the right size, and the people here seem very nice," Rinoa replied truthfully. Selphie looked very satisfied with Rinoa's answer. "But…" Rinoa continued, "…have you lived here all your life? Did you grow up with all these people?" She gestured around at the few people who remained out and about.

"Well… no. I moved here from… from Trabia, actually…" she said, looking down at her feet. She was, for the first time that evening, completely still and quiet.

"Oh," Rinoa said, slightly confused. "So, you miss Trabia, then?"

"Immensely!" Selphie exclaimed. "But… I heard, recently… that they were hit by Galbadian missiles… a direct hit on the school! And, well… the school was blown to bits, more or less…" she trailed off.

"Oh, Selphie, I'm so sorry!" Rinoa said. "But… _Galbadian_ missiles, did you say?"

Selphie merely nodded.

"Those Galbadians! They always have to ruin everything for everyone, don't they? And General Caraway… he's in a good position to make them stop and yet he does nothing… Selphie, Galbadians are the reason I had to leave my home and come here. So, I understand how you feel. But I'm sure that you would have heard if any of your friends were too badly hurt, so I wouldn't be too terribly sad about it." Rinoa smiled gently in Selphie's direction, hoping that she made her feel at least slightly better.

Evidently, it wasn't too hard to cheer Selphie up, because she was immediately her same, bubbly self.

"Say, Rinoa… where are you staying, anyway?" Selphie asked.

"Well, I… umm… I have yet to figure that one out…" Rinoa looked down sheepishly.

"You can stay with me then! At least until you can find a place. Or, you can stay forever! …I've always wanted a sister, and I'm sure my parents will adore you! This is going to be great!" Selphie jumped up and grabbed Rinoa's hand without waiting for a reply, and immediately started off in what Rinoa assumed was the direction of her home.

"No, Selphie, it's okay!" Rinoa said, turning red from the embarrassment of being offered such a thing. "I'll just rent a room at the —"

"Nonsense!" Selphie interrupted. "You're staying at my house, and that's final. This is going to be so much fun! I'll get to introduce you to all my friends, and they'll all love you of course, and you can meet my kitten— her name's Luna— and…"

But Selphie's babbling was soon completely shut out of Rinoa's mind, because what she saw in front of her was the most amazing sight she had ever laid eyes on. There was a boy sitting on a bench in front of her, all by himself. He looked to be around Rinoa's age. His face was intriguingly beautiful, almost like a person one would only imagine existed, rather than someone who was really sitting in front of her.

He had the most wonderful eyes Rinoa had ever seen… but she couldn't tell if they were blue, or gray. She supposed they could be both of those colors at once, though. His hair was deep brown and tousled— although not distastefully. He looked like he must be in deep thought, because his eyes were very far away. He wore mostly black— but then who didn't nowadays?— and Rinoa found herself wishing more than anything that she could be sitting on that bench next to him, talking to him, just being in his presence.

Then, he looked up.

Rinoa smiled, instinctively, but he didn't smile back.

Okay, so he wasn't just beautiful, he was… shy? She hoped that was the only reason he hadn't returned her smile. When she looked back to the bench he had been sitting at, however, he was gone, and she thought maybe she had just imagined the whole thing because she was so tired. She was then awakened from her thought process.

"Hello-o… Rinoa! Geeze, you got so caught up in looking at Squall over there that you forgot I was talking to you, hmm?" Selphie said.

"What? No, Selphie, I—!" Rinoa tried.

" Well, don't even _bother_ developing any sort of feelings for _that_ kid…" Selphie continued, interrupting Rinoa's protest.

"I didn't plan on… wait, why?" Rinoa asked, curious.

"Well, he isn't exactly mean, or cold-hearted or anything… he just…" Selphie shrugged. "He doesn't like girls."

Rinoa felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Oh… so it's true then, isn't it?"

Selphie looked confused. "What's true?" she asked

"All the best looking ones are either taken, or… or gay." Rinoa answered her quietly.

At that moment, Selphie burst out laughing, and didn't stop for a while. Even when she was finally able to semi-contain herself, she had to take a couple of deep breaths before she could speak.

"Squall Leonhart… _gay_?! Gosh, no… I guess I should have thought about the way I was wording things!" Selphie let another giggle escape before looking as serious as she was capable of looking. "No, he's not gay," she grinned again, "he doesn't like _anyone_. _**Ever**_." She nodded impressively.

Rinoa couldn't believe that. "_Ever_?"

Selphie shook her head solemnly. "All the girls at school have had trouble with that one as well… I mean, it does sort of seem like a waste of a very good-looking guy, doesn't it?"

Rinoa giggled. "That's an understatement. So, okay… he's asexual," she smirked, "but what about friends? I'm sure he's one of the more popular boys in Balamb, right?"

But Selphie had been shaking her head frantically before Rinoa even finished her sentence. "No way! He's, well… anti-social! And _that's_ even more of an understatement."

With that, the topic of Squall Leonhart closed.

Selphie pulled Rinoa a little past the hotel and to the right, to a beautiful little house. As they walked up the driveway and onto the porch, Rinoa found herself marveling at how easily all her worries had been eased, even if it was only temporarily, when she had started talking to Selphie. She smiled to herself as Selphie shoved her through the front door and into what she could only assume was the living room, where Selphie's parents were.

"Mom, Dad," Selphie declared triumphantly, "I've brought home a sister! Her name is Rinoa, and you're going to love her. She will sleep in my room, and I will take care of her."

Rinoa giggled a little at Selphie (she was speaking of Rinoa as if she were a stray puppy she'd found on the street), and then smiled apologetically to Selphie's parents. "I'm sorry to intrude, but Selphie insisted that I come… she wouldn't even let me think of staying at the hotel tonight… but if it is too much trouble then I'll just go to the hotel anyway."

Selphie's mother stood up, putting a hand on Rinoa's shoulder. "Nonsense! You can stay here as long as you'd like. And you don't even have to sleep in Selphie's room if you don't want to; we have a guest bedroom." She smiled warmheartedly, and Rinoa felt truly welcome in their home.

With a sideways glance at the look on Selphie's face, which screamed _You _must _stay in my room!_, Rinoa told Selphie's mother that she'd be staying with Selphie after all. Then, after being shown where it was by the overly-excited Selphie, she plopped down on the bed she and Selphie would be sharing, and fell asleep immediately.

When Rinoa woke up the next morning, or rather, the next _afternoon_, she initially had no idea where she was. Forgetting where she was when she didn't sleep in her own bed had always been a bad, albeit unbreakable, habit of hers.

She sat up, and looked around frantically, but there were no clues in the room to tell her where in the world she was. For one thing, the room was empty, minus herself. For another thing, when she had fallen asleep, the room had been completely dark, so there was no way for her to recognize her surroundings.

Then, thankfully, Selphie entered the room, and memories of the previous night flooded into Rinoa's mind immediately.

"Good morning sleepy head! I thought you would never ever wake up… but now you're awake, and I can show you off to all of my friends!" Selphie said jokingly.

Rinoa smiled. "Am I allowed to bathe first, perhaps?"

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that… of course! But you have to meet my kitten first."

It was only then that Rinoa realized Selphie had had her hands behind her back the entire time. Rinoa guessed there must be a kitten in those hands of hers. She hoped Selphie would show her the kitten soon, though. Not only was she excited to see it, but Selphie was bouncing excitedly from foot to foot; Rinoa thought Selphie might drop the kitten at any moment.

"Ta-daaa!" Selphie squealed, holding the kitten out in front of her.

Rinoa's eyes widened excitedly as she looked at the adorable little black mass of fur. "Aww! This is Luna? How cute… can I hold her?"

They spent the next couple of minutes paying all their attention to the kitten, and then Rinoa decided she really, desperately needed a shower, especially now that she felt all itchy from the kitten hair.

She was shown to the bathroom, where she gratefully got into the shower. Upon getting out, she came to a terrible realization, and frantically called Selphie to the bathroom door.

"What happened, Rinoa, are you all right?" Selphie asked, worried.

"No, I'm okay it's just… I only just realized that I have no clothes to wear…" Rinoa said quietly. She was glad that Selphie was on the other side of the bathroom door and not looking her in the face; she was blushing with embarrassment at her rash behavior. How could she have left Timber with no clothes on _top_ of no money? Then again, she had left in a hurry… hadn't really had time to think about anything but the well-being of the Forest Owls…

She was pulled out of her reverie by Selphie giggling.

"Well that's all right, Rinoa!" she said. "I have plenty of clothes for you! Really!"

"Oh… all right, but I'll only wear your clothes for a couple of days… after that I'll get my… uhh… s-someone I know in Deling City to h-have some of my clothes sent up here."

"You know someone in Deling? Ooh, how did you meet them? Did you hear, General Caraway lives there too? Oh, but you don't like him, I forgot…"

"He's a terrible man… but anyway, Selphie, can I p-please have some clothes? I'm freezing in h-here!"

"Oh! Right! Okay, I'll be back with your clothes in a couple seconds!"

When they got the clothes issue situated, Selphie insisted (as she usually did) upon taking Rinoa "out on the town" so that she could meet everyone. They left the house with Selphie feeling overly-excited, as usual, and Rinoa feeling inexplicably nervous for the day to come.

------

When they stepped out into the momentarily blinding, yet pleasantly warm sunshine, Rinoa felt her stomach do flips. It wasn't really that she was nervous to meet new people; she had always been very confident, not to mention good with people. The thing she was worried about was that, since this was a town she'd never been to, people might ask her too many awkward questions, such as why she'd left Timber, why she appeared to have no family, why she was staying with Selphie, and so on, and so forth.

Mere minutes after leaving Selphie's house, they encountered someone that Selphie not only knew, but seemed to be rather close with.

He was taller than Rinoa, and looked to be pretty strong. He had blonde hair that was spiky in the front, and a pretty cool tattoo thing on the left side of his face. From the moment Rinoa met this guy, she liked him.

They had been walking down the street, toward the area where the shops were, and he had burst out of a little house that was set on a downhill slope. They hadn't noticed him at first, so of course Selphie ended up walking right into him. Right off the bat, Rinoa could tell he had an issue with keeping his emotions on check.

"SELPHIE! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOIN', WON'T YOU?" he yelled, but Rinoa could tell he wasn't being completely serious.

Selphie's face was bright red. "Ahh! Zell, I'm so sorry! Only, we didn't see you, and I was just showing Rinoa around so that she could meet everyone, and I was distracted, and--"

"Wait, who the hell is Rinoa?" Zell interrupted, obviously confused. Then, he turned to where Rinoa was standing, and smiled rather sheepishly. "Oh, you must be Rinoa…"

Rinoa giggled and nodded. "Yes, that's me! Nice to meet you, Zell." She held out her hand, and he made sure to wipe his off before taking hers and shaking it.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too… Selphie!" he said, releasing Rinoa's hand and turning to Selphie. "Where you guys goin'?"

"Oh, I don't know, really… just around. I want everyone to meet Rinoa! She's going to be one of the gang now, you know. She lives with me and _everything_!"Selphie smiled her huge, enthusiastic smile.

"Cool! So, where we're going… does it involve… food?" Zell asked.

The second he said that, Rinoa's stomach grumbled loudly.

Evidently, Zell heard it, because he jerked his thumb in her direction and said, "See? Rinoa wants to eat, too!"

"Well," said Selphie, "okay. I'm sure we'll see everyone anyway. Let's just go to the ice cream shop! They have the best cheeseburgers there."

With that, they made their way to the ice cream shop. The moment they walked into the shop, there was a chorus of _Zell, Selphie!_ and Rinoa turned to see a tall, pretty blonde girl, and a tall_er_, good-looking guy who reminded her of a cowboy. Apparently they hadn't realized that Rinoa was with Zell and Selphie; they probably thought that she just happened to walk into the shop at the same time as the other two. However, Selphie grabbed Rinoa's hand, beaming, and bounced over to where the blonde and the cowboy were sitting.

"_This_," she said ceremoniously, "is Rinoa! She's my new sister. Well, kind of."

"Hi, Rinoa, my name's Quistis," said the tall blonde, smiling warmly. She then turned her attention to Selphie. "Sister?"

"Yes, sister! She lives with me. When she came to live with me I told her I'd always wanted a sister… so last night, while she was sleeping, I decided that she _is_ my sister. Look, she's even wearing my clothes! Because, this morning, she was…"

Selphie continued talking, but Rinoa didn't hear the rest of it, because the cowboy had moved in front of her and taken off his hat, lowering his head.

"Hell_oo_, Rinoa. I'm Irvine. What's a pretty little lady like yourself doing in Balamb?" he said, putting his hat back on and looking directly into Rinoa's eyes. She smirked a little when she realized that Irvine was being one hundred percent serious.

"Well, _Irvine_, I just happened to find myself here, actually. And… what's a cowboy doing in a seaside town?"

"I suppose… I suppose I just happened to _find myself here_, actually." he replied, smirking right back at Rinoa, who laughed.

"Touché, Irvine," she said, laughing again.

They then heard some disgusting noise, and turned their attention to Zell, who was shoving a cheeseburger down his throat as if he'd never eaten before.

"Whoa, there, Zell… calm down a little," Irvine said, the corner of his mouth lifting in disgust.

"Zell, do you ever stop eating?" Quistis asked, grinning.

"Well…I do…usually…unless…I'm at…school…" he said, between bites and swallows.

Rinoa's head tilted in confusion. "Why is it that you never stop eating at school?" she asked.

In unison, all the others said, "Hot dogs." (Zell came in a little late with an excited "Hoh-doh!", spraying food everywhere.)

"Hot dogs?" Rinoa asked, shielding her face from the chewed up food.

"Yeah! The hot dogs are the best at the Cafeteria at school. There's always a rush for them, and people think that's why there's never any left. But really, the only reason there's never any left is because Zell eats them all as soon as he gets there!" said Selphie.

Rinoa turned to see Zell nodding fervently, and laughed.

The rest of their time at the ice cream shop turned out to be mostly uneventful, minus Zell almost choking to death, Selphie slipping on a child's fallen ice cream cone, and Irvine's continual flirting with the waitresses. When everyone had finished their food, they decided to take a walk down to the beach and see what was going on there.

They walked happily down to the beach, talking and laughing loudly like any group of teenagers would. When they arrived, it was positively packed with people. Apparently, Balamb was a sort of tourist trap in the summer.

Rinoa gazed around happily as she watched children building sand castles and shoving each other into the water, remembering when she had been a child and they had went to the beach. However, when she was a kid, it had been her dad she was shoving into the water, not another child, because she had had neither siblings nor friends. _My dad _was _my friend…_ Rinoa thought sadly.

She was suddenly pulled away from her deep thoughts by a loud, obnoxious yelling from directly to the left of her. She turned to find Irvine pouring a bucket of wet sand— _Where did he get a bucket??— _on Zell's head, flattening his spikes. Meanwhile, everyone but Zell was laughing… including Rinoa. Zell started shaking with anger, shaking all over, and that made everyone laugh even harder.

"Aww, c'mon, Zell! It was only a joke," said Irvine.

Zell began punching the thin air in front of him, as if to threaten Irvine, and Rinoa had to cover her mouth tightly with both hands to keep from laughing out loud again.

"See why I wanted you to meet my friends, Rinoa?" Selphie whispered, smiling.

"Yeah, I do." Rinoa replied, watching as Zell chased the cowboy down the beach, through the throng of people. Then, something— or some_one_— else caught her eye, and she couldn't help but stare.

Squall Leonhart was sitting by himself on the sand, in a spot where there were hardly any people. It made Rinoa sad to see him by himself while they were all there together, so she decided to go talk to him, and try to get him to come sit with them.

When she told Selphie her plan, however, she got laughed at.

"You're going to go ask _Squall_ to come hang out with us? I mean… I have no objections to hanging out with the guy, really… but Rinoa you're going to get yelled at! Or… or sand thrown at you, or something!" Selphie looked incredulous.

"Geeze, Selphie, have some faith in me!" Rinoa replied, smiling.

She then turned and walked slowly over to where Squall was sitting. Suddenly, she felt very self-conscious. What if he _did_ throw sand at her? Then she'd have to go back to everyone all covered in sand, while Selphie laughed and said, "_I warned you, Rinoa!_" While that didn't sound like Selphie at all, Rinoa could still picture it perfectly in her head, and would prefer to not have to go back to that. Still, her kindness outweighed her fear of rejection, and she knelt down next to Squall.

"Hi, I'm Rinoa!" she said happily.

Squall looked at her pointedly, then looked away.

_Wow, _Rinoa thought, _he's just going to ignore me? Well I suppose that's better than getting sand thrown at me… No! I have to try harder. _

"Umm… I see you're, uhh… a-all alone, and… well, my friends and I… were… we were wondering if you'd l-like to…maybe… hang out with us?"

_Great, Rinoa, good job. Now he's going to think that you're some maniac who can't even have a decent conversation. He's not going to want to go anywhere near _you, _let alone hang out with your possibly maniacal friends!_

Squall looked at her, and she could read it in his face. He must think she was stupid or something.

"You _and _your friends, hmm?" he asked.

"Well, not exactly… I mean, they… they want you there too, but… well, it was… it was my idea…" Rinoa trailed off slowly. Obviously this wasn't going the way she had planned.

_I might as well back out now… before he starts with the sand throwing._

"Whatever," was his reply. Then, he stood up, turned, and swiftly (but gracefully) walked away in the direction of the docks.

"You could have at least _thanked_ me!" Rinoa called after him, but to no avail. He didn't even give her so much as a backward glance. Thus, Rinoa turned and began walking toward her friends alone, feeling defeated.

_Well, look on the bright side,_ she told herself, _at least I'm not covered in sand. And, hey, even if he _is _a jerk, at least I found that out early on in my stay here. That way I know to stay away from him and leave him alone. But maybe he was just having a bad day? No, Selphie said that he was always like that. He's asexual. __Not to mention, he has no friends. I just don't see how someone can actually_—

"So, what happened?" Selphie asked excitedly, interrupting Rinoa's talk with herself.

"He just looked at me. And then, I thought maybe he would come… but then he just said—"

"— whatever. Am I right?" Selphie filled in.

"Yes, that's exactly what he said. How did you know?"

"That's all he _ever_ says! He's always just off in his own world, thinking who-_knows_-what, and then if you say anything to him he just goes, 'Whatever,' and then leaves, or keeps thinking again."

"You guys talking about Squall?" asked Quistis.

"Yeah… does he talk to _you_, Quistis?" Rinoa asked.

"No. He never did, not even when I was his instructor. Even if I tried to—"

"— sorry, but… instructor? You're a teacher, Quistis?" Rinoa was baffled.

"No, I _was_ an instructor… but it… it d-didn't work out so well. Anyway, when I was his instructor, I thought I had him all figured out, so I tried to _force_ him to talk. I think it just annoyed him more though. That's the thing with him, it's like he just gets irritated if anyone talks to him… because he's always so deep in thought or something." She looked away as if she was pondering this possibility.

Rinoa absentmindedly watched as Irvine came running by, hat askew, and Zell chasing him with the same bucket that had just been poured on him. Then, a little kid that looked to be about four years old came over to Zell, kicked him, and yelled, "Hey, Misto'! Gimme back my buh-kit!"

Zell hopped up and down on one foot, dropped the bucket, and swore under his breath. "See what you cause, Irvine?" he said, shaking again.

Irvine just laughed. "Well, if you wouldn't have taken that kid's bucket, then your leg would probably be doing just fine right now." With that, he plopped down on the sand, staring out at the waves.

They stayed on the beach until sundown, when there were no more tourists there at all. Rinoa had never seen Squall leave, so she wondered if maybe he was still over by the docks, just sitting there and thinking. _Probably_.

Finally, when it was nearly dark, Quistis pointed out that they should probably get home before the tide got any closer to them. So, they all made their way to their respective homes, saying things like, "_I'll see you tomorrow_!"or, "_Today was fun_!" or even, "_I have to go home and eat_!" (That last one was Zell, of course.)

When they made it to Selphie's house, Rinoa figured she should probably call Deling City about getting her clothes delivered to her somehow. She asked to use Selphie's phone, dialed the proper number, and took a deep breath.

Ring.

_It's not like it's a big deal, Rinoa._

Ring.

_He isn't going to blow up on you, or something._

Ring.

_You're his daughter, he_—

"Caraway Mansion."

"H-hi, it's… it's, umm… Rinoa… can—"

"—Rinoa! Oh, I'll go and get your father, you just hang on a bit."

Rinoa heard the sound of the phone being placed on the desk— _Or the kitchen counter?_— and took another deep breath, waiting to hear footsteps. She wished she would have said that she didn't _want_ to speak to her father, she just needed someone to find a way to bring her clothes to Balamb. Admittedly, that was rather far away from Deling City, but that was exactly why Rinoa herself could not just go and retrieve them from there.

She heard footsteps. Her pulse quickened.

"Hello, Rinoa." It was her father.

"Hello, General Caraway," she replied, feeling slightly satisfied when she heard him sigh with frustration.

"I'm sure you wouldn't be calling here if you didn't desperately need something, Rinoa. So, what is it? I hope you don't need a place for that faction of yours to stay, because I'm not opening my house to people who cannot obey the law."

She heard hidden implications in his little speech, whether they were there or not, and felt herself begin to tear up a little bit. "No, General Caraway, that's not what I need. I got… I had to leave Timber, because… and I'm in Balamb right now. I don't have any clothes with me, so I was wondering if there was any way I could have my clothes from the mansion sent to me."

"Why don't you have clothes with you? Did you just leave all your things on that blasted train of yours?" He sounded exasperated.

"Okay, if it's too much trouble then never mind. I'll just wear these clothes for the rest of my life." Rinoa knew she was being over dramatic, but often that was the only thing that would work with that _man. _She refused to acknowledge him as her father… unless she slipped up, of course.

"Fine, Rinoa, I will have Linda ride the train out there with your things. You can meet her at the train station tomorrow at _three o' clock_, do you hear me? No later. I know you have a tendency to 'lose track of time,' but that will not be acceptable tomorrow."

"Okay. Thank you, _General_."

With that, Rinoa hung up the phone. She felt kind of bad for being so rude to her father, but he had no right to treat her like she was still a seven year old. She was much older than a seven year old— ten years older, to be exact— and she felt it was degrading and rude. But, some good had come out of this; she would get to see Linda!

Linda had been Rinoa's "nanny" of sorts after her own mother had died. Since her father was an army General, he often had no time to be at home. So, he hired Linda to take care of Rinoa. She was extremely attached to Linda, and saw her as a grandmotherly figure in her life. Thinking back, Rinoa realized it must have been Linda who had answered the phone, and mentally kicked herself for not talking to her when she had the chance.

Then, Selphie came bouncing into the room, smiling hugely.

"Rinoa, Rinoa!"

"Yes?"

"Oh, nothing, I was just happy to see you."

"Selphie… you just saw me five minutes ago."

"Yeah, I know!" she said happily, and bounced back out of the room happily.

Rinoa laughed and followed Selphie, her uptight mood over her father already forgotten. However long she stayed here, she decided, was going to be a very interesting chunk of her life.

**well... there it is! you can... you know... review it, if ya wanna:D well, off to put some finishing touches on chapter two now!**


	2. Fight

**this one will be a teensy bit different than the first chapter... so bear with me, because it was just an idea i had. i'm still not sure quite how i feel about this one, i may change it quite a bit in the very near future. we'll see! ohh... and thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter, it was very encouraging and made me happy. anyway, enjoy!**

**disclaimer!!-** i do not own FFVIII... other than my own copy of the game.

It had been around ten minutes since "the incident," and Squall still couldn't believe it had happened. Some people in this town were simply unbelievable! To send a newcomer to fetch him just because they knew he'd say no to them had been rather stupid. Hadn't he told them over and over again that he didn't want to spend his day doing stupid things when he could instead spend it being productive? He laughed to himself, remembering how she had called after him, "You could have at least _thanked_ me!" as if Squall should have thanked her for disturbing his privacy! But, he did sort of admire her guts. She may have stuttered a lot, but at least she got _some_ words out. Then again, the fact that she had actually spoken to him irritated him to no end.

_I just don't get it_, Squall thought, _most girls take one look at me and run away. Although, I do prefer it that way… but still, this girl was a complete new girl here! To think they would actually send her over to me… And I'd bet my gunblade that one of the people she wanted me to hang out with was that hyper girl… Sophie? Or that over-emotional one with the tattoo. Why am I even bothering to think about this? Get a hold of yourself, Squall._

After he had gotten up from where the dark-haired girl had asked him to go "hang out" with her and the others, he'd decided to head toward the docks. The docks were his favorite place in all of Balamb, because no matter what, he could always be a hundred percent alone there, with nothing but him and his thoughts. He enjoyed being alone because then, he could be safe in his head. If he was always alone, then he would never have to worry about getting close to someone and having them leave him. If he was always alone, he never had to worry about depending on others who would eventually just let him down.

He sat down on the edge of the oldest, most rickety wooden dock, swinging his feet back and forth. Staring out at the ocean, he felt a sense of peace steal over him. Here, he felt free from the crowds of people that usually surrounded the small town of Balamb. He sat, motionless, immersed in his deep thoughts. Gradually, the sky changed from a bright blue to a light, gray-blue, then from gray-blue to orange-red, and from orange-red to pink-purple. The sun disappeared slowly below the gently rolling waves of the ocean, and Squall realized he'd been sitting in the same position for hours. So, he laid his head back on the dock, and stared up at the steadily darkening sky.

He had a sudden, fleeting thought.

_I wonder if Sis is looking at the sky right now, too? _

He pushed that thought aside immediately, burying it in the corners of his mind somewhere. It wouldn't do him any good to think of things like that, because then he would go home in a bad mood and ignore his father again. His father always felt like a failure if Squall ignored him.

Sighing heavily, Squall stood up. A little ways ahead of him, he could see a group of people starting to leave the beach. He slowed a little so he would run no risk of walking too closely behind them. Looking a little more closely, he discovered that it was the dark-haired girl and her friends. And, of course, he had been right. He saw, not only the hyper-active girl and the tattooed guy, but that annoying cowboy and his old instructor, as well. He rolled his eyes as the hyper-active one tripped. Then, sighing, he turned and slowly made his way to his home.

When he walked through the door, his father was immediately standing directly in front of him.

"Hi, Squall! You hungry? What were you up to all day?"

_Must you always ask me multiple questions at once? Try one at a time someday…_

"I'm not hungry, thanks. I've been down at the docks," Squall replied.

His father looked at him, worry showing on his usually joyful face. "You sure, Squall? It wouldn't be any trouble to just—"

"Yeah I'm sure. I'm going to go to bed or something. I'm… tired." With that, Squall turned and went up the stairs to his room. When he arrived, he all but threw himself face-down onto his bed. He couldn't help but allow his thoughts to return to his sister.

This was one of the few times he actually wished that he had friends. He knew that if he had friends to talk to or hang out with or do stupid things with right now, he wouldn't be thinking about his sister, Ellone.

He didn't want friends, though. He just missed his sister. He hadn't seen her in almost ten years, because she had been kidnapped when they were little. She was one of the only two people in the world whose existence he didn't find pointless. She had always seemed to know exactly what to say. The other person whose existence he thought served a purpose was, of course, his father, Laguna.

Squall closed his eyes, turning his face to the side.

_I must be crazy… _he thought,_ wishing I had friends and talking to someone other than my father all in one day. Maybe I need sleep. Yeah, that must be it._

He shut his eyes tighter and was asleep within minutes, the worries of his day forgotten.

------

A couple weeks later, Squall sat on the old, rickety dock again. He had been here every day for the past week, but he didn't know why. He felt that lately, he needed more peace. _And I should,_ he thought,_ what with that new girl running around here, causing trouble… _

The dark-haired girl had managed to end up wherever Squall went. He didn't think she did it on purpose, only that it was such a small town that she couldn't help but be everywhere he was. However, the good thing about it was that she hadn't talked to him again since that one day when she had asked him to hang out with her friends.

Squall was, as usual, submerged in his thoughts as he sat on the dock. He watched as a few boats went sailing by. He remembered one time when he, his sister, and his father had gone on a boat. Its rocking had caused Squall to fall asleep within minutes of boarding it. Now, Squall wished he could be on a boat, or anything else that would put him to sleep, for that matter. The past couple of nights had been mostly sleepless.

Suddenly, Squall felt a hand on his shoulder. Immediately he turned, a glare already plastered onto his face, to see what kind of an idiot had dared invade his privacy like this. Of course, glaring right back at him was Seifer Almasy, God's punishment to all of mankind. He shook Seifer's hand off and stood up, turning to face him.

"What do you want, Seifer?" Squall asked, still glaring.

Seifer laughed. "Is little Squally having a bad day?"

"…Whatever," Squall said, turning to leave.

"Oh-ho-ho! So Squall's a coward now! Running away from a fight, huh?"

"I don't know where _you've_ been, but that wasn't any kind of a fight," Squall said, continuing to walk away.

Seifer was beside him in moments, matching his quick stride effortlessly. "Well, are you interested in _making_ it a fight, Leonhart? Haven't seen you around here lately… I was beginning to think you and that pathetic father of yours had finally decided to get out of here. But then I thought, no, there's no way I'd be that lucky."

Squall was finding it very difficult to keep his hands from balling up into fists. _It's a good thing I left my gunblade at home,_ he thought,_ because otherwise Seifer would currently be missing a limb or two. If he wasn't so utterly desperate for attention, maybe he wouldn't be such a damn problem!_

"Also," Seifer continued, "I figured you would stay here just in case that sister of yours came running back home."

Squall's face snapped up in attention, his jaw set.

"You know, it really is too bad she ran away, Squall. I mean, if I remember correctly, she was such a pretty little girl. Who knows, by this time she's probably pretty ho—"

But what Ellone might be by this time, Seifer never managed to get out, because Squall's fist had smashed into Seifer's jaw. In response to this, Seifer managed to aim a hefty blow to Squall's right eye. However, that was the _only_ blow he managed to get in, because Squall pushed him to the sandy ground and walked away.

_Stupid Seifer. If I go back to the docks _now_, all he'll do is provoke me more. Not that I wouldn't _love_ to bash his face in, but I know what I'm capable of. I don't want to cause too much trouble for my father to deal with._

Squall looked around, trying to decide on a place to stop so he wouldn't have to go home just yet. He spotted a rather flat rock in the middle of nowhere and figured that was as good a place as any. He sat down and put his face in his hands, which was somewhat of a mistake. The moment his hand touched his right eye, pain shot through the entire right side of his face. Seifer must have given him a black eye. _Wonderful_. So, he looked up instead, watching the waves come and go.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, there was a very ugly distraction from the ocean in the form of Seifer Almasy. Squall sighed.

_Not again!_ he thought.

Surprisingly enough, Seifer didn't make his way over to Squall. Instead, he kept walking straight for the town.

_Good. I am really not in the mood to deal with him again._

Squall sighed once more. Ignoring the pain that immediately came, he put his head in his hands again, and silently wished the sun would set so he could go to sleep.

**a bit shorter than the last one... sorry about that. anyway, you can review if ya wanna! **


	3. Phenomenon

**well... here it is! chapter three. eh, i hope you like it! **

**disclaimer-** nope, i don't own Final Fantasy VIII. i am, however, madly in love with it. i mean really... that Squall guy is such a character!

Rinoa had gotten her clothes from Linda on the day her father had instructed (and not a minute late, either). Linda had, of course, gushed about how much Rinoa had grown and how beautiful she had become. But when things like, "You look so much like your mother did," came up in the conversation, Rinoa made sure to remind her that her train was going to leave any minute now, and that in any case she had to go take her things home and unpack them. With that, she had hugged Linda goodbye, and left.

After having spent a couple of weeks in Balamb, Rinoa felt she was really getting the hang of things. She had fallen in love, not only with the town, but with the people in it. She already felt closer to her friends in Balamb than she ever had with any other friend before; other than the Forest Owls, of course.

One afternoon, Rinoa, Selphie, and Zell were at the ice cream shop, when Rinoa suddenly felt like she needed to take a walk. She felt bad that she wanted to leave, but it wasn't her fault. She had always been like this. One minute she would feel spectacular around people, but the next she would just want to be by herself, walking around and admiring whatever scenery there happened to be around her. This "condition" of sorts had always annoyed her, but she had no control over it. And besides, if she didn't get away from everyone when she felt she needed to, she would get irritable and frustrated, and take it out on the people around her.

So, she told Selphie and Zell that she was going for a walk and would return shortly, and set off for the beach.

She was walking slowly, breathing deeply, and enjoying the smell of the salty sea air. She had started walking with her eyes closed the moment she reached the beach, because she didn't see anyone there, so there was no risk of running into anybody. Little did she know, there was someone walking right toward her, and he had no intention whatsoever of stopping.

Rinoa, oblivious to the person who was walking toward her, continued walking with her eyes shut. Suddenly she found she couldn't walk anymore, because there was something in her way.

"I'm so sorry! I—"

Her eyes flew open.

Her jaw dropped.

She took two steps back.

"Why, hello, Rinoa. Long time no see, eh? I bet you missed me," said the man in front of her.

"S-Seifer? What are you doing here?" Rinoa asked, both horrified and taken aback.

"Well, doll… I go to school here. You, however, have no business being here. But I guess, as usual, you don't know your _place_, do you?" he said maliciously.

Rinoa moved to walk around him so that she could just keep walking forward, but he stepped to the side to block her way. She suddenly felt very trapped on the big, open beach.

"Seifer, let me by!" she said angrily.

"You know, I don't think I'm going to be able to do that, Rinoa. I think today's your unlucky day, because I'm not feeling terribly generous today. In fact, I'm feeling downright _angry_ today! You see, I had a run in with this punk Leonhart, you probably wouldn't know him. Well, he just has a way of pissing me off every time he opens his stupid mouth. The funny thing is, he rarely _ever_ opens his mouth. Well, unless I provoke him…" Seifer grinned cynically, and Rinoa noticed he had a few bloody teeth.

Deciding not to ask, she took a deep breath. "Seifer. Just… just let me pass."

"No, I don't think I will. Not unless you decide you want to apologize for being a complete waste of my time last summer. How's that?"

"Seifer, please!" Rinoa said, moving to the side again. Once again, he moved to block her way. She knew she should be able to just turn and run. She knew that it would be easy, not to mention logical, to just run past him instead of trying to walk. But she felt as if her legs were locked and she could take no more than a few shuffles to the left or right. She could feel her throat starting to tighten as the tears made their way to their spot behind her eyes.

"C'mon, Heartilly. I gave you your options. Either apologize for your disastrous performance last summer, or I stay here." He still had the cynical grin on his face, however, it had widened a great deal.

Rinoa hung her head in shame as she felt one traitor tear slide down her cheek.

"Fine. I… I'm—"

"— Seifer what are you _doing_ to her?"

Rinoa looked up to the source of the interruption, and she thought she had never been so grateful to hear one voice in all of her life. The person who had spoken, interrupting Rinoa's pitiful attempt at getting by Seifer, was Squall Leonhart. He was standing three or four feet to their right, and it looked like he had the beginnings of a black eye.

Seifer's grin disappeared immediately upon hearing Squall's voice.

"You just can't stay out of things, can you Leonhart?" he said, his voice overflowing with hatred.

"I have no problem _staying out of things_, Seifer. But it looks to me like you have a problem with causing trouble," Squall replied, glaring at Seifer.

"You just stay out of this! This is our business. She deserves every bit of _trouble_ I cause her. Isn't that right, Heartilly?"

Rinoa looked away.

_Come on, Squall!_ she thought. _Just sock him and get this over with… I just want to go home, curl up in a ball, and never leave Selphie's room again._

"Okay, Almasy. Either you leave the girl alone and let her pass, or you'll have me to deal with," Squall said.

Rinoa mentally cheered Squall on. She thought that "having him to deal with" wasn't something anyone would want, let alone a coward like Seifer.

"Hah, I'll have you to deal with? Excuse me, but it seems to me that I'm the one who always ends up dealing with _you_," Seifer sneered, looking directly at Squall's now-prominent black eye.

"If I remember correctly, you're also the one that always ends up running away from the fights you start," Squall replied, smirking.

_Yeah! Go Squall!_

"Whatever. You guys aren't worth my time anyway. You better watch your back, Leonhart. That goes for you, too, _Rinoa_."

With that, Seifer retreated.

It took Rinoa a moment to realize that he had actually left, and by the time she _had_ noticed, Squall was already walking away. She had to run so she could catch up with him.

"Hey, I… well, thanks," Rinoa said when she had finally caught up to Squall.

He just nodded.

"It was really sweet of you to do that for me."

"For you? I didn't do that for you. I did that because Seifer's a moron who deserves to be brutally beaten to death," Squall replied. Then, he sped up.

Rinoa was now practically jogging to keep up with his quick pace. "Well, either way, you practically saved my life. So, I owe you one."

"…Whatever." He turned left, and walked off.

Rinoa just stood there, rooted to the spot.

_So he saves me from the biggest jerk ever created… and then when I try to thank him, he just says, "Whatever," and leaves? I don't understand this boy! _

But whether she understood Squall or not, Rinoa realized that she needed to make it to either a bathroom or a trashcan, and fast; she was going to be sick.

She turned and made her way as fast as she could for the nearest public bathroom, which, thankfully, wasn't far away. Afterward, she leaned against the wall outside and slid down so she was sitting on the ground. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't be dizzy, and started to think.

_Seifer. He's such a jerk! I don't know how he ever fooled me into thinking I meant anything to him last summer. He didn't give a damn about me! All he wanted was to feel like he was in control of someone… to use me. And when he realized I wouldn't give him what he wanted… I got thrown to the curb in favor of someone who _would_ give him what he wanted. And now he treats me like it was my fault! None of that was my fault. All I did was have respect for myself… right?_

She decided that maybe thinking wasn't the best idea after all, because all it did was make her feel sick again. She closed her eyes tighter, and wished more than anything that she could just fall asleep and wake up in a world where Seifer had never existed. And Galbadian presidents, for that matter.

The next thing she knew, she was being shaken.

"No… stop…" she said, irritated.

"Rinoa you're sleeping on the side of a public bathroom… you look like a homeless bum!" It was Selphie, and it sounded like she was trying very hard to mask the concern in her voice. "Now. Let's get you _up…_" (she helped Rinoa up as she said this) "…and take you home!" She smiled.

"Thanks, Selphie. Uhh… what time is it, exactly?" Rinoa had looked around and realized that, while it had been relatively bright outside when she'd sat down outside of the bathroom, it was very dark now.

"Eh, I don't know. A little after sunset… probably seven-thirty or so."

"SEVEN-THIRTY??"

"Yeah. Hey, what happened to you, anyway? Why were you just… just sitting there like that?"

Rinoa groaned. "Ugh, it's a long story… I'll tell you when we get home."

"Okay," Selphie replied, "but I think you'd better brush your teeth first. Your breath smells like… well, vomit."

Rinoa blushed. "Yeah, it _would._"

"Why?"

"Because… I threw up."

"What? Why? Are y—"

"— Selphie, I told you I'd explain when we got home," Rinoa reminded her.

Selphie sighed. "But I want to know _now_!"

"Well, I don't think you want to be smelling the vomit smell _now_, do you?"

Selphie shook her head, frowning deeply.

"Exactly. Besides, were almost home anyway. Look, I can see your mom's car from here."

When they got home, Rinoa went up to the bathroom and brushed her teeth vigorously. She didn't want any of that disgusting stench remaining in her mouth, not to mention the _taste_. She stood in the bathroom for a little while, trying to steady herself. She didn't really want to tell Selphie about her history with Seifer. She felt like it would reveal a little to much about her insecurities. However, Selphie was now pretty much her best friend. Rinoa knew she would understand, and could only hope she wouldn't let this information leak to anyone else. Outside of Selphie's bedroom door, Rinoa took a deep breath, and walked in.

Selphie immediately crossed her legs where she was sitting and made her best "I'm-paying-attention" face.

Rinoa took another deep breath. "Okay. So you want to know what I was doing outside of the bathroom."

Selphie nodded.

"Well, it's kind of a long story, so if you want to just—"

"Rinoa!"

"Fine. First, you should know, it had everything to do with my stupid ex-boyfriend, Seifer Almasy. I don't know if you know him, but he's—"

"_Seifer Almasy_?!" Selphie asked, her voice loud with disbelief. "_The_ Seifer Almasy? The blonde one? Tall? Trench-coat-lookin' thing?"

"Umm… yeah. You know him?"

"Well, he goes to my school. He's like… the bad boy of the school. He's Squall's rival."

"Yeah, I know that _now._ But… do you want to hear my story, or not?"

"Oh! Sorry." Selphie grinned sheepishly. "Go on, please."

"Well, uhh… it all started last summer, you see. I met him in Deling City. From the moment I met him, he was always the sweetest boy ever. He complimented me, made me laugh… he was just great. He never said a bad thing about me!" Rinoa's heart warmed a little at the thought of the good memories. Jerk or not, she and Seifer had had many a good time.

"You sure we're talking about the same Seifer?" Selphie interjected, disbelief written all over her face.

"Positive. So anyway, we were together for the _whole_ summer, and even into fall. It was pretty spectacular… and I liked him a lot. I thought he liked _me_ a lot, also. But toward the end… he kept asking me to do things that I didn't want to do." Rinoa looked meaningfully at Selphie, hoping she wasn't too naïve to know what Rinoa was talking about.

Selphie returned Rinoa's gaze blankly.

"_Bad_ things, Selphie. _Disgusting_ things."

"OHH! Ew… Go on."

"Well, I kept telling him I didn't want to do stuff like that. Then eventually… he told me that I had been a waste of his time, and that he should have known from the beginning that I would end up disappointing him. He said he'd found someone else who wasn't as childish… and then he left me." Rinoa's stomach was tying itself up in knots at the effort of remembering this story. While she told it to Selphie, she felt as though it were happening all over again.

"Aww, Rinoa I'm sorry! But he's a jerk anyway; he doesn't deserve you!" Selphie appeared to be furious, which made Rinoa happy.

"Heh, yeah, I know. Well, anyway, when I went for a walk today, I literally ran into Seifer. He wouldn't let me pass… he kept moving so that when I tried to get around him, he'd just be blocking my way again. And he started repeating all the mean things he'd told me before… about how I had been a waste of his time and all that stuff. He told me the only way he would move is if I apologized for wasting his time… and I was about to apologize, too! I still can't believe that. But I almost apologized… and then, someone saved my life!" Rinoa smiled triumphantly.

"Who? Who saved your life, Rinoa?"

"Squall Leonhart."

Selphie appeared to be speechless, for once.

"He came and told Seifer to leave me alone, basically. Then they were arguing… Seifer said Squall just couldn't stay out of things, or something along those lines. And then Seifer just left! I think it annoyed him that Squall would come in the middle of that. Then, when I tried to thank Squall… ooh, this makes me so mad! I tried to thank him, and he said— and I _quote_— 'I didn't do that for you. I did it because Seifer's a moron who deserves to be brutally beaten.' Then, he pretty much just left."

"Well… I _do_ have to congratulate you… that's the most I've ever heard Squall say. Well, okay I technically didn't hear it, but you know what I mean. Either way, though, that doesn't explain why you threw up," Selphie pointed out.

"Seifer makes me sick. It's as simple as that."

Selphie giggled. "I understand com_plete_ly!"

Rinoa smiled faintly. "Yes, but… if you don't mind… do you think I could sleep in the guest room tonight? It's just that, well, I don't want to end up throwing up on you or something!"

Selphie grimaced. "Yeah, I think you'd better sleep in there…"

**aww, yeah i hope you liked it. it's kinda sad cuz when i was writing the part where seifer was being a jerk to rinoa, i could feel how she was feeling! my stomach was literally in knots. anyway, review if you'd like. i'll try to update it soon... BUT! i'm currently at a complete loss as to what to do for chapter four. i _had_ an idea but i don't like it. so, it depends on whether or not my writer's block goes away. that's all!**


	4. Irritation

**okay, here's my poor attempt at stifling my writer's block! thanks to the reviewers... you make me feel halfway okay about my skills as a writer.**

**disclaimer again- i do not own FFVIII. but, i do resemble Selphie Tilmitt. just not as animated. or beautiful. or tiny, for that matter. :D**

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Squall groaned. Was it really the first day of school already? He usually had very few problems with school, but for some reason he thought this year would be different. As he turned off the alarm clock and slowly got out of bed, he felt that something was going to go wrong today. He sighed. _Whatever,_ he thought_, no use worrying about it now. Besides, even if something _did_ go wrong… it's not like I'd be able to change it._

Twenty minutes later, Squall was fully dressed and out the door. It was a short walk to the school, which was just outside of town, and he reveled in the momentary silence. He knew once he got to school there would be no more silence, and that irritated him. He didn't see how people had a problem with being quiet all the time, especially considering that what they did talk about was usually unimportant, not to mention uninteresting.

Once inside the school, Squall made his way for the library. It wasn't that he particularly _wanted_ to be there; he didn't even really like books. But, the library was always the quietest place in all of Balamb Garden, and as usual, Squall was in the mood for thinking. However, when he made it to the hall leading to the library, there was an announcement over the intercom.

_"Squall Leonhart, please report to the Headmaster's office. I repeat, Squall Leonhart, to the Headmaster's office."_

Squall scowled. He made his way to the elevator, pushing the third floor button. What could they possibly want of him so early on in the day? It wasn't even time for first period yet and already he was being called to see Headmaster Cid. The elevator stopped, and Squall got out. When he got to the Headmaster's office, he stopped dead in his tracks.

There, standing in front of him, was the dark-haired girl. _Did Seifer call her… Rinoa?_ he found himself wondering. _Ugh, it doesn't matter. I just want to get this portion of the day over with._

Squall stepped forward. "You wanted to see me, Headmaster."

"Yes, Squall, please, sit down!" the headmaster replied, smiling.

Squall remained standing.

"Um… yes, well. This young lady right here," he gestured toward the girl, "is in need of assistance."

Squall said nothing.

The headmaster's smile faltered a little, but he continued. "Her name is Rinoa Heartilly, and she is new here. After having gone over her schedule, it appears that yours is the same." He said this as if it was a great, exciting discovery.

_Wonderful! The girl who thinks I should thank her for everything is in all of my classes. This day just keeps getting better,_ Squall thought. What he said was, "I don't see where I come in, Headmaster."

"Well, Squall, I would like for you to sort of… oh, take her under your wing, if you will. You are among the most mature students in this school, and I know that I can trust you not to play any jokes on her or give her any misinformation. Show her around, introduce her to people, get her acquainted with our school." He nodded once.

Squall just looked at the Headmaster. Obviously he didn't know one thing about Squall. Introduce her to people? How was he supposed to accomplish that? And moreover, he didn't want to be stuck with her tagging along all day. Still, Squall wasn't one to say no to an order from an authority figure. He nodded in the Headmaster's direction, frowning slightly. Then, he turned and walked out the door, silently hoping that Rinoa would forget he was supposed to take her around school.

His hopes were shattered when he heard a, "Hey, wait up!" from behind him.

He stopped.

"Sorry, I don't walk as quickly as you do," Rinoa said when she caught up with him. She was smiling.

Squall looked at her. _Why is she talking to me? Does she think that just because I'm supposed to show her around this place, that we're suddenly going to be friends? This is going to be a long day._ He looked ahead of him once more, and set off for the elevator. Once inside, he pushed the first floor button.

"So, Squall… umm… what are the teachers like here? Are they strict?"

She was prodding, he could tell. She wanted to get him to speak to her. _Well, she can prod all she wants. I'm not going to tell her anything unless I have to._

"Okay… do you not like me or something?" she asked.

Squall continued staring straight ahead of him as he walked.

"You know, you could at least say _something_ to me. You don't have to be so rude about everything! I was just trying to make polite conversation." When he didn't answer her yet again, she sighed. "Fine, then. Two can play at that game. I won't talk to _you_, either." She folded her arms across her chest.

"Finally," Squall said simply.

Rinoa groaned in frustration. "Why are you so difficult? I've only spoken to you _once _before today, and you've been rude to me both times!

_Maybe if you would stop bothering me I wouldn't have to be rude to you._

"See, and even now you still just keep walking silently. You don't say a word, unless it's something rude and uncalled for."

_What else is there to say? You never say anything worth while._

"You know what, never mind. I'm going to get someone _else_ to show me around the school. And I'll make sure to sit far away from you in all of my classes!" With that, she turned on her heel, and walked away.

_Was that supposed to offend me or something? _Squall thought, smirking to himself._ Well, at least this day's not a total bust. Something went right after all; I don't have to deal with _her_ anymore!_

--------

The day passed relatively quickly, even with Rinoa in all of Squall's classes. True to her word, she had sat as far away from Squall as possible, which was just as well for him. He preferred his seats in the back of all his classes. More importantly, he preferred sitting alone, and everyone knew that.

Before Squall even had time to wonder what time it was, it was lunch time. Lunch was always Squall's least favorite time of the day. At this time, he was actually required to stay in the Cafeteria, locked in there with all of the other students. Unfortunately, it was the loudest time of day, and he always detested it. Sighing (as he so often did), he headed toward the Cafeteria. Once inside, he walked over to the very back table in the very farthest corner away from everyone else. However, it was not empty as usual. There, sitting at _his_ table, was none other than Rinoa Heartilly.

"Don't you have somewhere _else_ to sit?" Squall inquired.

"Oh, so you're speaking to me now, are you?" Rinoa asked, her voice the sarcastic kind of sweet.

Squall blinked, irritated. "I wouldn't _have_ to if you weren't sitting at my table."

Rinoa looked down. She appeared to be examining the table, and this confused Squall. Finally, she looked up, smirking. "Well, Squall, I don't see your name on this table anywhere. So, you can do one of two things. You can find your own table to sit at somewhere else… or, if you'd like, you're more than welcome to sit here with me."

Squall glared at her. However, he could hear her annoyingly hyper friend coming, so he decided he'd just find another table somewhere else. He turned, and looked around, trying to find another empty table. Finally, he succeeded, and sat down, taking out the lunch his father had insisted on packing him.

_Peanut butter and jelly? I always tell him I hate peanut butter and jelly. That's _his_ favorite, not mine. Well, whatever. I lost my appetite anyway… I can't believe that girl! It's like she's trying to irritate me. She probably is. She's childish enough. Well, whatever. It's just a stupid table, right? And better this one by myself than that one with her and her stupid, childish friends._ Squall sighed, throwing away his lunch.

--------

When he finally got home at the end of that excruciatingly long day, he was glad to see that his father was not yet home from work. While he really did love his dad, and didn't mind spending time with him occasionally, today wasn't one of his bonding days.

After lunch, Rinoa had insisted on accompanying Squall to class, and even sitting by him. This irritated him to no end, especially since she kept up a steady flow of conversation the _entire time_. He knew she was just trying to annoy him into speaking to her. She probably wanted an apology for his being "rude", but he didn't think he owed her anything. So, he sat stoically through every ounce of chatter she threw his way, determined to stay silent no matter what. And, after a while, he actually halfway learned how to tune her voice out.

But now, he was at home, free from the annoying voices and prying eyes of others, and he just wanted to sleep off all the irritation. So, he did.

**this chapter is DISGUSTINGLY short... and i'm sorry!! BUT! i promise the next one will be longer. in case you hadn't noticed, i want to switch off between Squall and Rinoa for each chapter. thus far, it's been harder for me to write Squall-chapters than it has for me to write Rinoa-ones... but i'll try to be a little better with Squall. anyway, feel free to review. let me know how i'm doing.**


	5. Memories

**so it seems that, quite unsurprisingly, my last chapter wasn't very... well, liked. but, that's okay. like i said, it wasn't a surprise. however, this one should be somewhat different... i hope. enjoy!**

**disclaimer- blah blah blah, FFVIII isn't mine...**

Rinoa smirked to herself as she exited Balamb Garden at the end of her first day of school. She had managed to annoy Squall Leonhart an awful lot throughout the course of the day, and that was good; he deserved payback for always being such an insufferable jerk. She really felt very satisfied with herself, and thought that this was a routine she might be able to keep up every day for the duration of her stay in Balamb. However, she really didn't plan on staying long. She hadn't even wanted to enroll in the school, but she had been forced by Selphie, who insisted that it didn't matter if Rinoa had completed all the necessary courses whilst in home schooling; if Selphie had to go to school, so did Rinoa. So, she had enrolled.

Rinoa was walking home by herself, because Selphie had to stay after to start planning for the Garden Festival. She had, of course, tried to force Rinoa to join the Garden Festival Committee, but to no avail. Rinoa didn't want to become a part of something she would have to commit to, especially since she didn't plan on staying in Balamb.

_Funny,_ Rinoa thought,_ how I keep repeating that to myself… "I'm not staying in Balamb." When really, I would love to. I love this town!_

She smiled, looking at her surroundings. True, she wasn't quite in Balamb yet, but even the walk to and from the school was peaceful and calming. Then, as if on cue, she heard a loud groan, which very much disturbed the peace. She turned to the left, where the sound was coming from, to see an old man and a middle-aged man. The old man was doubled over, clutching his stomach, and groaning in pain. At first, Rinoa was alarmed. She had to help him somehow! She thought about walking over there, but just then she caught the eye of the middle-aged man. He looked excited— although Rinoa couldn't figure out why, especially considering his dad, or whoever that old man was, was in so much pain— and nudged the old man, pointing to her. Then, they both started to walk toward her. Rinoa panicked, and walked swiftly away.

Why would they be following her? Was it because she was all alone and she looked vulnerable? What if they wanted to mug her, and the stomach-pain-thing was just an act, something to make her feel bad and stop walking? She didn't know. But from what she remembered, it wasn't a good thing when two strangers followed you. So, she sped up.

Finally, she was in town. _Good, the populated place! Let's see them mug me here!_ She smiled triumphantly in spite of herself. Chancing a look behind her, she found that the two men were still following her. The old man was, surprisingly enough, walking very fast for a man his age. In fact, he was walking faster than the middle-aged one… Odd.

Rinoa turned a random corner, then another one. She had to lose them somehow, and she figured if she turned enough random corners, she'd eventually make it to Selphie's house without them following her. So, she turned a few more random corners, and…

…she found herself staring the two men straight in the face.

Her eyes widened in shock. "Don't mug me! I've got… uhh… my boyfriends on his way here! And he's six-foot-four and on the wrestling team!" she threatened, yelling the first intimidating thing that came to her mind.

"No, Princess! It's me!" the old man was saying.

_Princess? What kind of a creep is this? Maybe he's senile…_

The old man took a step closer to her, grinning.

"Don't come any closer!" Rinoa challenged.

"Princess it's me! Zone! This is my latest disgui— ooouuuuuCHHHH… my stomach!" He bent over double again, clutching his stomach.

"…Zone? Is that really you? And you," Rinoa looked at the "middle-aged" man, "must be Watts!"

The pseudo-middle-aged Watts grinned hugely. "It's me, Princess! And, that really is Zone… as you can tell."

Rinoa jumped up and down, completely overjoyed, before running and hugging both of them tightly.

Zone and Watts had been in the Forest Owls with her. They had always referred to her as their "Princess," but she never really knew why. Most likely because she had been the only girl involved in the Forest Owls. She hadn't seen either of them since the big escape from Timber, and she was so happy to see that they were alive that she probably could have cried right then and there. But, she was too happy to cry, really. She just wanted to know how they'd escaped.

"Watts, I need information! What happened after we left Timber? After we got separated?" Rinoa asked, folding her hands behind her back.

"Gathering information is my specialty!" he told her happily, before launching into his story.

Apparently, they had been just as distraught over the loss of their "Princess" as Rinoa had been over the loss of them. They had actually gone back to Timber and snuck around (in clever Galbadian Soldier disguises, of course) trying to find Rinoa. When they figured out that she obviously wasn't still in Timber, they got on the Forest Owls' train, and headed for Deling City. There, they demanded to see General Caraway so they could find out where Rinoa was—

"— why would you ask _him_ where I was?" Rinoa interrupted, amused.

"We were worried, we didn't know _what _we were doing!" Zone answered.

Then, Watts cleared his throat and continued.

…so they could find out where Rinoa was, but he wouldn't see them. He was "too busy". Upon leaving Deling City, they decided to go to Dollet. In Dollet, they had found a big white ship, which they'd boarded. It had been full of children and teenagers, there wasn't one adult on that boat…

"There was a really nice girl though. She was very pretty… I never found out her name," Watts mused.

"But… you're an expert information-gatherer! How could you _not_ find out her name?" Rinoa wondered.

"I really don't know… On with the story!"

…On the ship they had come up with the spectacular disguises they were currently wearing. Then, they had been dropped off at Balamb, and here they were now.

"That's an adventurous story!" Rinoa said, grinning.

"Yeah, I know!" Zone exclaimed. "But… that pretty girl had wanted to get off at Balamb, and they wouldn't let her. I don't know why, of course. It's Watts' job to gather information, not mine."

"I think they fear for her safety," Watts speculated.

Rinoa wondered who this "pretty girl" could be, and why an entire ship would fear for her safety. Moreover, she wondered why this ship was full of nothing but children and teenagers… no adults. She didn't think that sounded like a very safe ship, to say the least. Then, she smiled, realizing nothing about her two dear friends had changed. Watts still had a knack for gathering all sorts of information… and Zone, well… he still had very bad stomach problems. And, she assumed, he probably still liked naughty magazines.

Rinoa very suddenly realized that it was getting kind of late, and that Selphie could quite possibly already be at her home, wondering where Rinoa was and if she was okay.

"Guys," she said, "I hate to break up our reunion so soon and all, but I kind of have to get… to the place that I'm staying." She was careful not to call it home, for fear she would grow attached to it.

"Well, let us walk you. We need to look for a place to live around here anyway… maybe we'll end up being neighbors, and you can be our Princess again!" Zone said.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

When Rinoa got back to Selphie's place, she was greeted by a very frantic and flustered Selphie. Not only had she been worried about Rinoa, but she had other news as well. She had seen Irvine on her way home. First, when Selphie told Rinoa that she'd seen him, it made no sense as to why she would be so worried. Then, Selphie told her the story.

"I was walking— well, skipping— home, and, ooh! I saw the coolest cloud, it was shaped like a—"

"Selphie!" Rinoa interjected, trying to make her focus.

"Oh, right, sorry." Selphie took a deep breath as if to clear her mind of any and all distractions. "Skipping home. Okay. And then, out of nowhere! I saw Irvine! And of course I said hi… and then… then he told me… well, I don't remember the exact words, I was so nervous! But he said something along the lines of, 'Listen darlin'… how 'bout you and me go get something to eat tonight? I'll pick you up around eight.' So I ran home to tell you… but you weren't here. Oh, Rinoa, what do I _do_? What do I_ wear_? What if he thinks I'm _stupid_?!"

"Calm down, Selphie, we'll get this all figured out. Just take a deep breath."

While helping Selphie choose an outfit, Rinoa smiled to herself. So it was true… Selphie _did_ like Irvine, after all. Rinoa recalled asking Selphie once whether or not she did… and if she remembered correctly, Selphie had sputtered something that suggested that she didn't know what Rinoa was talking about. Funny how girls acted like they didn't like boys when really, the whole world could tell that they did.

When they had finished getting Selphie ready, they had a couple of minutes to spare, so they sat on the couch patiently. Well, Rinoa was patient.

"Is it eight yet?" Selphie asked.

Rinoa checked her watch. "It's seven-fifty-three."

"Ugh! Make time move faster!"

Rinoa laughed.

"So, Rinoa, found any cute boys in Balamb yet?" Selphie asked.

Apparently, she reverted to asking awkward questions when she was overly-nervous.

Rinoa frowned. "Sorry, but… no. This town doesn't seem to have too much to offer on _that_ subject. Not that _I've_ noticed anyway."

_Except Squall. _

Rinoa's jaw dropped when that thought came to mind. Squall Leonhart? A cute boy? Well, he was very good-looking… but his being the world's biggest jerk kind of overshadowed any type of attraction she might have otherwise felt for him. Hell, he was nearly as high up on the "List of Meanies" as General Caraway himself.

Thankfully, Selphie had been to nervous to notice Rinoa's jaw falling out of its sockets.

"Rinoa…?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"…What time is it?"

Rinoa rolled her eyes, checking her watch again. "It's seven-fifty-six."

"Make time go—"

_Honk._

"Did he… did he just _honk_ instead of knocking on the door and coming in here like a gentleman?" Rinoa asked, slightly offended.

"Yeah… he's so great…" Selphie said dreamily.

Rinoa laughed. "Well, you'd better get going… wouldn't want to make _Iiirvy Kinnepoo_ wait any longer, now would we?"

Selphie blushed furiously. "You can bet on it!" And with that, she skipped out of the house.

Once Selphie was gone, she suddenly found herself wishing _she_ had a date to go on, even if it was a school night, and even if she _did_ think that there was no male on the face of the earth that was worth her time— romantically. With a sigh, she walked upstairs and into her room— she had kept her own room after the vomit-incident— and fell down onto her bed.

Her thoughts turned to Seifer.

She missed him. Even if he had completely ruined her life, and even if he had only been using her… that had been the first time in, well… ages, really… that she had felt loved. Wanted. Even… needed. Just the thought that every kind and wonderful thing he had said to her had been a lie was enough to constrict her throat. Each time she thought about him, it was as if she was hearing him tell her how useless she was all over again, but tenfold.

_Come on, this is pathetic! How long has it been? Almost a year! And I'm still thinking about that pompous, no-good, lying, using_ loser_? He's not worth my time… he's taken enough of my time already. Four or five months of my time wasted on him, and then what do I do? Waste another year of it just thinking about him… analyzing everything I ever did wrong… all the things I could have said or done to make him stay. I'm through with that! _

Rinoa sat up. She knew, deep down, that it was time to move on. It had, in fact, been time to move on the moment he told her she had been a waste of his time. So, she decided that the next time she saw Seifer, she wouldn't allow him to treat her like dirt again. Especially since the last time he'd treated her like dirt, she'd needed Squall Leonhart to save her. She didn't need Seifer putting her down… and she didn't need Squall thinking she was helpless.

Which brought Rinoa to another thought.

Why was Squall so mean to her? She thought back to everything she had ever said to him, in the whopping three or four "conversations" they'd had. There was nothing she'd said that could have possibly offended him in any way. In fact, up until today at lunch— she smirked at the memory of lunch— she had been nothing short of sweet to him. She had thought…

She had thought that maybe, she could get to know him. Because, in actuality, he was very, very good-looking. And Rinoa wasn't one to like someone based on looks alone… so she had thought maybe everything everyone told her about him would turn out to be untruthful, and that she could get to know him, so that _then_ she could like him.

But of course, everyone had been telling the truth.

Which, she supposed, was just as well, because she'd rather have a bunch of truthful friends and one good-looking jerk who hated her than have no truthful friends and a good-looking boyfriend.

_Ugh_, she thought, _all these stupid thoughts of Squall are giving me a headache._

She yawned and stretched.

She checked the time. Eight-forty-seven. She knew she should probably wait up for Selphie… but she was so tired from her long day at school. Not to mention all the annoying Squall she'd had to do, thinking she was going to get mugged, helping Selphie pick out an outfit, _and_ her thoughts forming complicated circles in her head.

So, Rinoa laid back on her bed, and fell asleep without another thought.

**so, just like every other chapter since the first, this wasn't too long. but i'll let you guys in on a little secret: the first chapter was actually TWO chapters that i combined into one, after realizing that there was no need to separate them! funny, hmm? anyway, i hope you liked this chapter. i have to admit, i kind of did. then again, since i did, it's likely that no one else will. anyway, REVIEW!! i need to know if i'm doing okay or not, people!! thanks :D**


	6. Halloween

**i think this'll be pretty short. but there's actually a reason this time! i'll letcha know what it is at the end.**

**disclaimer- i do not own FFVIII. i'm not even done playing it, because my third disk malfunctioned right when i was gonna go to the Lunatic Pandora and start the end of the game! sad, huh?**

Squall was sitting on his bed, looking out the window. Because the side of the house his room was on faced south, he could see out at the ocean from his window. He liked to stare at the ocean; not, like most people, because he thought it was beautiful, even though he did. The reason he liked the ocean so much is because for some explainable reason, he thought that the ocean held some sort of answer for him.

"Squall, come down here for a minute!" his dad yelled from downstairs, pulling him away from his speculation of the ocean.

Squall sighed, got up, and wend downstairs to the kitchen. He looked at his father. "Yes?"

"I have some very great news for you!" his dad said, smiling.

Squall gave him an "Okay, what is it?" look and waited patiently for his father's answer.

"We're having a Halloween party!"

Squall stood motionless at the kitchen counter. He was so completely horrified that he could not move.

"We're _what_?!" he shouted, refusing to believe that he had heard his father correctly.

"We're having a Halloween party!" he repeated brightly.

_A Halloween party?_ Squall thought. _Of all the terrible, stupid ideas my father has had… This one tops them all!_

"A Halloween party," Squall said to himself, still unable to believe his ears.

"Yes, and people will have to dress up, of course."

"And… I have to attend?"

_Please say no. PLEASE say no!_

"Of course you do!" his father said with a smile.

_Damn it._

"Squall, it'll be a great chance to meet people… to, well… make friends! Won't that be great?"

"No."

His father acted as if he hadn't heard a reply. "I'm inviting everyone in the neighborhood," he said, "and even Kiros and Ward!" At the mention of his two greatest friends, his smile widened more than Squall thought was possible. He seemed positively thrilled at the idea of hordes of people dirtying up his house while dressed as something they weren't. To Squall, that sounded far from "_great,_"… it sounded like three to four solid hours of absolute hell. Absolute hell _he_ had to attend. On top of that, Squall hadn't worn a costume in years! This really was the worst idea he had ever heard… but, his father would be crushed if Squall refused to go. And besides— what was the point of fussing over it and wasting his energy?

So, he told his dad that he'd go and then went back up to his room.

Once he was there, Squall laid on his bed so he could think.

He suddenly wondered, with a grimace, if his dad would invite Rinoa's family… that would mean _she'd_ probably want to come as well.

_Of course he'd want to come. She'd jump at any chance to annoy me! Especially in my own house… I bet she'd feel real good about that._

He made a mental note to make a mask a part of his costume, so she wouldn't be able to recognize him if she _did_ end up coming.

Eve since that first day of school, Rinoa had continued bugging Squall. He couldn't figure out what kind of satisfaction she got out of it, but he could tell it sure made her happy. Every day after lunch, she would make a point to walk with him to class, and then sit by him, just as she had on the first day. Squall had tried telling her to go away, to leave him alone, to jump off a balcony. He had even tried saying nothing at all. But, much to his disappointment, she had continued to follow him, sit by him, and talk to him. She was like mold; sure, she would go away for a little while, and you'd think you were completely done seeing her. But then, out of nowhere, she would come back, and she'd be even worse than before.

Sighing, Squall let his mind wander. Surprisingly, his thoughts fell on the day he had gotten into the "fight" with Seifer. He found himself wondering what on earth Rinoa had been doing talking to Seifer anyway. She really didn't seem like the type to want that kind of company around her, but then again Squall knew nothing about her. For all he knew, she _was_ that kind of company.

_No, when I walked up to them… Seifer was saying something about "last summer"… that means they must know each other already. _

Either way, Squall decided, it didn't matter whether they knew each other or not… especially considering he had no desire to know. It was Rinoa's business if she wanted to hang around people like Seifer, and all the better for Squall if she did. Then, maybe she would leave him alone for once.

But… she had been crying.

That, unlike anything else, actually made Squall curious. It wasn't that he cared for her— _And who _could_ care for such an annoying, childish person?— _but he really just wanted to know what Seifer could have been saying to her that had made her cry. Maybe she was just overly sensitive.

At any rate, it was a waste of Squall's time to be thinking about things that were none of his business.

_A Halloween party,_ he thought again. _That's going to be a disaster._

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It was only a couple of days until Halloween, and news of the party had already gotten around to all those who were to be invited. Of course, that meant that all the parents had told all the kids, and in turn, all the kids had told all the other kids. So, there were an awful lot of people at school talking about it in the halls.

Since news of the party itself had spread, news of who was _throwing_ it had spread also… and altered, in the process. Over the course of one week, it had gone from, "Laguna Loire's throwing a party!" to, "Oh…Squall and his father are throwing a party, did you hear?" and finally came to a stop at, "Yeah, I heard _Squall Leonhart_ is throwing a party! So-and-so said he's trying to make friends, now." This news irritated Squall beyond all belief, because now people would randomly stop him in the halls and ask him if they could go to "his" party. Of course, he would glare at them and continue on to his class.

_People at this school are so thick-headed. They believe any rumor they hear! You would think that by now they'd realize that I'm not going to change. I don't want to have friends. That would only give me one more burden to carry around… and to me, that does _not_ sound appealing._

The tip of the iceberg, though, was when Rinoa asked him about it during lunch one day. She had actually gotten up from "her" table, walked all the way over to where Squall was sitting, and then even had the nerve to sit down across from him with a huge grin on her face.

"So, Squall," she said, "you finally decided to be a normal teenager and _socialize_ for once, hmm?"

Squall continued picking at his sandwich— which was not, for once, peanut butter and jelly— in silence.

"Well, everyone's talking about your party. They all say that _you're_ the one throwing it, even though Selphie and I keep telling them that it's probably just some stupid rumor. I mean, come on… I've only been here for a few months and even _I_ can tell that you would never throw a party! So where'd the rumor come from, Squall?"

He figured he might as well set her straight— maybe then she would leave. "It's my dad's party," he said simply, never taking his eyes from his demolished sandwich.

"Aha! That makes sense… hmm, Selphie and I didn't think of _that_ possibility… well, I'll see you there then! I've already got a great costume. Want to know what I'm going to be?"

"No."

"I'm going to be a pirate! Isn't that cool? What are you going to be?"

Squall sighed.

"Geeze, you're so boring," she said, when she was sure Squall wouldn't answer. "I'm just going to go back to my table, then. See you after lunch, Squall!" She grinned hugely, then left.

Squall put his face in his hands. So she _would_ be there. Wonderful! The idea of the stupid Halloween party just kept getting worse and worse.

He sighed again. Why did Rinoa insist on talking to him? He could tell by her overly-enthusiastic conversations that she really was only trying to annoy him, but he had no idea why she would put so much effort into it. Most likely, she would only have to be herself to annoy Squall; no effort involved, no energy wasted.

Then, as if to heighten his frustration with the way the day was going, the bell rang. He turned to see Rinoa happily making her way to where he was standing.

_Here we go again_, he thought.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The days before the Halloween party passed by quicker than Squall hoped they would, and before he knew it he was waking up on the morning of. He groaned and rolled over, wishing that he could go back to sleep and not wake up until the next morning. Then, wouldn't he technically be attending the party still? It was, after all, being held in his house… and he would be in his house. Just not with all the people. The idea was just starting to sound like a good one when there was a frantic banging at his door.

"Squall get up!" his dad was saying. "We need to get everything ready! Tonight's the party! It's going to be great!"

Why was it that everyone insisted on using the word "great" when referring to this party and the things that went along with it?

Squall managed to pull himself out of bed and get dressed. Much to his dismay, he was forced to spend the rest of the day putting stupid, childish decorations all over the house. Then, even _more_ to his dismay, his dad made him go to his room to change into his costume: some kind of weird, deteriorating, fanged-monster mask.

When he could hear enough people that he thought he could probably remain unseen amongst them, Squall finally went downstairs. He hoped that he would remain unnoticed for the rest of the night. He also hoped that his mask would repulse people, so that they wouldn't come near him and try to talk to him.

Seeing so many people in his house displeased him. Moreover, a lot of the people were unfamiliar to him. Then, he glared as he spotted someone he knew: Rinoa. She was, indeed, dressed like a pirate. She was standing with a sailor— her hyper friend— and laughing about something. So, Squall turned and went to the room that was as far away from Rinoa as he could manage, which was the kitchen.

Leaning against the counter, Squall could just watch all of the people coming in and out of the different rooms. Occasionally he would see someone he knew, but they, of course, wouldn't notice him. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before Rinoa made her way to the kitchen as well.

_God, she follows me when she doesn't know who I am, too!_ Squall thought, irritated.

He turned away from her, to the left, hoping to remain unnoticed… but failed.

"Ah, Squall!" a voice was saying. "Your father told me you were the one in the grotesque monster mask— I should have known!" It was one of his father's best friends, Kiros.

Squall's eyes widened under the mask. Surely Rinoa had heard that. Maybe he could pretend he wasn't himself… he could just act like he was someone else. No, he decided, he might as well just talk to Kiros. So, he took off his mask.

"Hey, Kiros," he said simply.

"How have you been? You've certainly gotten taller… you look a lot more like your dad now than you used to… that's too bad." He smiled.

Squall smiled back… a little. He liked Kiros… he was a lot more calm than most other people Squall knew, and easier to be around. "I don't really know what to say to that…" Squall replied truthfully.

"Ah, that's okay. Well, listen, I'm going to go find Ward… shouldn't be hard, really. He kind of sticks out." Kiros said his goodbyes, and left.

Squall quickly put his mask back on and hoped to God that Rinoa had left the kitchen during his conversation with Kiros.

"Hey, Squall!"

Why did all his hopes regarding that girl seem to be in vain?

Squall acted like he hadn't heard Rinoa call him and swiftly left the kitchen. He was sure she was following him, but he was also sure he could lose her. After all, he knew this house better than she did; he could walk around it with all the lights off and never once run into something. So, he took a couple of turns and went through a couple of rooms and knew that she probably had no idea where he was now. So, he sat on a couch in the middle of a lot of people, and tried his best to be easily overlooked.

Then, a thought came to him.

_This is ridiculous! Hiding from some stupid, annoying girl in my own house… a girl who's not worth any of this effort. I could just as easily still be in the kitchen… ignoring her. And then I wouldn't have had to waste so much time coming in here to hide from her._

Still, he wished he had thought to buy an extra mask for if something like this happened. Then surely she wouldn't be able to find him again and annoy the hell out of him for the rest of the party.

He got up, meaning to go back into the kitchen. Then, he had another thought.

_If I go back now, and she's still there… she's just going to stand there talking to me for who knows how long! If I stay here, there's a good chance I won't have to see her for the rest of the night. God, if she had just stayed in whatever town she used to live in then I wouldn't even have to _make_ this decision! She just complicated everything._

He sighed. When would this night be over?

**okay, so, the reason for the shortness. i kind of wanted to have the halloween party in both Squall's and Rinoa's points of view, because i think it'd be kinda interesting to see the way he looks at it as opposed to the way _she_ looks at it. but anyway, yeah. the next chapter's gonna be in Rinoa's point of view obviously... annnd, yeah. this time it wasn't just my inability to write a decent length chapter that made it short! but the WEIRD thing is that on the program i typed this on, it said 2448 words... then on the one i transferred it to (i have to transfer it to be able to upload it on here) it said that i only had 2417 words... then on this website it said 2434 or something like that. soo, yeah. that's weird. but whatever. time for the next chapter. **

**P.S. the only reason i've been updating this so frequently is because i had a week off of school... and then some days got cancelled due to the fire. tomorrow, i start school again, so i might not be updating all the time anymore. or, i might... depending on how bored i get with schoolwork.**


	7. Discoveries and Errands

**ahh. another chapter! hooray! enjoy.**

**(addition- i feel like SUCH an idiot!! there were two changes that i had meant to make to this and i FORGOT so the people that read it at first saw my mistakes!! ahh this is terrible!! but i fixed it now!!)**

**disclaimer- not only do i not own FFVIII, but i don't own Twilight either... and that's what that excerpt down there is from. Twilight, by Stephenie Myer, otherwise known as the world's greatest author... other than J. K. Rowling.**

Rinoa watched as an ugly rubber mask retreated through the small crowd of people. Stomping her foot in frustration, she turned, scanning the house for Selphie's bouncy little form… or, a sailor's hat.

She really had been enjoying Laguna's Halloween party. She thought it was a great idea, and a wonderful excuse to dress up, because at the age of seventeen she was considered too old to trick-or-treat without seeming weird. Then, she had seen Squall. And for once, she really didn't want to go and annoy him at all. She just wanted to tell him she thought he had a nice house, and that his dad seemed really nice.

Rinoa sighed._ Well, I suppose I don't blame him for running away like that. But come on! It's a Halloween party! Why would he run away anyway? And in his own house? I just do not get that boy one bit. Why does he always have to be so… antisocial? _She frowned. _And obviously I can't _force_ him to be social… I bet he'd be nice, if he wasn't so… mean…_

When Rinoa finally found Selphie, she kicked herself for not looking there in the first place; Selphie was with Zell at the table which was piled high with candy.

"Hi, Rinoa!" Selphie chirruped, before continuing to shove handfuls of candy into her mouth.

Zell, meanwhile, was standing off to the side, grinning and nodding his approval. "I've taught her well!" he said admiringly.

Rinoa laughed. "Selphie… you're going to get a stomachache, and then you're not going to be able to sleep tonight," Rinoa warned.

"Oh, come _on_, Rinoa! We all know that sugar has no affect on me whatsoever! Right, Zell?"

Zell looked at Selphie, who was bouncing excitedly from foot to foot, apparently unable to stand still, and then back at Rinoa. "Yeah! Of course!" he said confidently. Then, only for Rinoa's ears, he said, "Heh, glad _I'm_ not the one who has to deal with _that_ tonight!" He jerked his thumb in the still-bouncing Selphie's direction.

Rinoa glared.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a very ugly monster mask that she recognized. With a hasty, "I'll be back, guys!", she left in pursuit of the mask and the one wearing it. She followed him to the kitchen, then to what she thought must be a dining room, then down a hallway, and up a flight of stairs. Then, one left turn and an open door later, she was staring the ugliest rubber mask she had ever seen face to face, and then it was being removed, and then suddenly she wished she was still looking at the mask.

Squall's eyes, while piercing, were filled with irritation and something that seemed a lot like blatant hatred.

"What are you playing at, following me up here?" he almost shouted.

"I-I… wanted to um—" Rinoa stammered, before being cut off.

"To what? To irritate me some more? You never give up, do you? Just leave me alone for once!"

"No! But— I-I really did want to apologize for— I mean, your—"

"I said, leave me alone." Squall's voice had a note of such discordance, such finality, that Rinoa turned on her heel and walked back into the hall.

Her heart was beating unpleasantly fast, as it always did when people shouted at her. Also, her hands were trembling. There was no doubt about it; Squall really was just an absolutely terrifying young man. It was as if his words had been carefully woven with hatred before he spoke them, so that it rung through each and every syllable.

When Rinoa had managed to find her way back downstairs, she discovered that she would rather be anywhere but Squall's house. In fact, she had no wish to ever return to his house… not that, under any other circumstances, she would have wished to come back anyway. But now, she had a real reason to stay away, and she was fine with that. Moreover, she decided that she really never wanted to see Squall again… she felt that if she _did_, her heart would swell up with fear and she would just run away.

_Well, I guess he'll be happy when he realizes I'm not going to bother him anymore, won't he?_ she thought.

After telling Selphie she didn't feel good, Rinoa left. While walking home, thoughts were flying through her head at the speed of light, and she could hardly grasp one of them before the next came.

First, she thought that she really didn't know why she had insisted on annoying Squall all the time. At first, it had been to get back at him for being unnecessarily rude to her, but she realized that after a while that hadn't been the case at all. No, she had thought, and selfishly, of course, that maybe she could force him to talk. And then, that maybe, after she forced him to talk to her once or twice, he would find that he didn't mind it; enjoyed it, even. Then, she could be the one to say, "I did it! I made Squall normal!" and she could continue their friendship from there.

_What a waste of time._

Then, she was thinking that, while he _had_ looked very alarming when he was yelling at her, Squall had also managed to look… well, beautiful. But that thought fled her mind as quickly as it had come.

Then there was another thought, which struck Rinoa as something rather ironic. Thinking back to how intensely Squall had spoken, she realized that he must be one of the gifted few that had the ability to convey their emotions perfectly with words. Rinoa had only ever known a couple of people she thought were good at that, and she wished Squall didn't keep all his thoughts, words, and emotions so bottled up inside. If he would only talk every once in a while, he could probably astound people.

_And if Squall Leonhart ever says something that isn't hateful or introverted to me, I'll give him a huge hug._

Since she knew _that_ would never happen, she pacified herself instead with a firm decision to never speak to Squall again. And somehow, even though she had never been able to call Squall her "friend" or even her "acquaintance", she felt a strange sort of loss once that decision had been rooted deeply into her mind. Rinoa had grown accustomed to Squall's irritated sighs and cold glares. To think that she would never get to cause him agitation again was kind of unsettling. But, all for the better, she supposed.

It was then that Rinoa realized just how cold it really was outside— _I thought seaside towns were supposed to be all sunshine all the time!_ Rinoa thought, irritated— and quickly headed to Selphie's house.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

An hour later, Rinoa sat in her room, reading a book as she waited for Selphie. Her eyes widened suddenly as a passage she was reading hit close to home.

It read:

"…_What was wrong with him? Was this his normal behavior? I questioned my judgment on Jessica's bitterness at lunch today. Maybe she was not as resentful as I'd thought._

_It couldn't have anything to do with me. He didn't know me from Eve._

_I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase _if looks could kill_ suddenly ran through my mind._

_At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump, and Edward Cullen was out of his seat. Fluidly he rose— he was much taller than I'd thought— his back to me, and he was out the door before anyone else was out of their seat._

_I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after him. He was so mean. it wasn't fair…"_

Rinoa sat on her bed, staring at the open book in amazement. It was almost as if the author had come to Balamb, met Squall, and then decided to base this "Edward" character off of him. Her initial reaction was to dislike Edward, since she would now think of Squall every time she read his name. However, Rinoa thought she would reserve her judgment on Edward Cullen. Maybe, as the plot thickened, he would become nicer. She knew that if, indeed, he _did _change as the story progressed, it would give her a sense of hope. Hope that maybe, Squall could turn to a friend after all.

_Why do I keep thinking this?_ Rinoa asked herself. _It makes no sense. I don't even know Squall… and yet, I want nothing more than to be able to call him a friend. Not an acquaintance, a friend. _She sighed._ This is all so confusing…_

Then, there came a loud stomping noise, and Selphie burst into Rinoa's room excitedly.

"Hi Rinoa how are you doing did you wait up for me? How sweet of you!" Selphie, who had been speaking at an alarmingly rapid rate, threw herself into Rinoa's arms, apparently overcome with emotion at the idea that Rinoa had actually waited up for her.

"Uhh…" Rinoa began, patting Selphie's back hastily, "Selphie— exactly how much candy did you _eat_ after I left?"

"Not too much why does it look like I gained wait or something? 'Cause I was actually just telling Zell that this sailor outfit was really starting to feel a little bit snug! How on earth did you know Rinoa? Tehe, know-Rinoa. They kind of rhyme!" She laughed appreciatively.

"No, Selphie… it's just that I think you're a bit hyper right now," Rinoa explained patiently.

"Nonsense I'm feeling fine and besides I'm always hyper I thought you would have guessed that by now."

"You should go to sleep," Rinoa told her firmly.

"Okay Rinoa I'll get right on it and in the mean time you get some sleep too good night Rinoa sweet dreams I hope you dream of nice things!"

And with that, Selphie bounded happily out of the room, leaving Rinoa on her bed, shaking her head and smiling.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A week later, Rinoa woke up to the sound of raindrops on her window, and almost jumped out of bed with excitement. (Of course, as usual, she was way earlier than Selphie, because Selphie was a _Five more minutes!_ type of girl.) She could almost feel it; today was going to be a spectacular day. Not only was it raining, which Rinoa took to be a good omen rather than a bad omen like most people, but it was Friday… and Fridays _never_ went wrong. So, she hummed as she got ready for school, and smiled as she grabbed her umbrella on the way out the door.

Rinoa had always thought that everything looked three times more beautiful when it rained. So, twirling her umbrella above her, she stared at her surroundings even more than usual, admiring how each individual blade of grass had a drop of water on it, or how every flower seemed to be so much brighter in color. Then, to her slight disappointment, she made it to school.

She had been at school for at least ten minutes, when she saw Quistis walking toward her. At first, she couldn't understand why on _earth_ Quistis would be at school; not only was she no longer in school, but she wasn't an instructor anymore, either.

"Hey, Rinoa," Quistis said, smiling.

"Hi, Quistis. Umm, sorry… but, what are you doing here, exactly?" Rinoa gave her a genuinely confused look.

"Oh! Heh, I'd almost forgotten. I'm to give you a message."

Rinoa waited, and when Quistis didn't tell her what the message was, she said, "Okay, what is it?"

"'Miss Heartily, go to the Headmaster's Office immediately,' or something thereabouts."

"So, that means that I should probably be getting to the Headmaster's Office right away, then?" Rinoa asked, starting to go to the elevator.

Quistis nodded. "And, I'll be accompanying you, because I have business there as well."

So, they headed for the Headmaster's Office on the third floor. When they walked in, Rinoa was absolutely astonished to see Squall standing there. He looked just as surprised to see her, and she wondered what on earth the headmaster could want with them. She hoped Headmaster Cid would tell them soon, because she felt slightly awkward standing in the same room with Squall when it wasn't class… especially because she hadn't spoken to him since his father's Halloween party.

The headmaster looked up. "Ah, finally. Miss Heartilly, I'm sure you are wondering why I have called you here, as Mr. Leonhart is." He raised his eyebrows in Squall's direction. "Well, I will get to the point. I am in need of someone to run… oh, an errand for me, you could say. I have called you two in here to do just that."

When the headmaster made a brief pause, Squall opened his mouth to protest. There was something like fury in his eyes.

"But, Headmaster, I—!"

"Mr. Leonhart, would you kindly listen to my request before turning it down? Anyway," he continued, "I have called you both in here for specific reasons. Squall, because he is the only teenager in this entire building that acts nothing like a teenager, and therefore I trust him greatly with matters of importance. You, Rinoa, I am calling in here after Quistis' advice to me. It appears that Mr. Leonhart is lacking in the— ah, people skills department. So, Miss Trepe suggested that I send you with him, because apparently you show an incredible knack for talking to people."

Rinoa smiled. "Anything you need me for, sir, I'll help with."

"Good. So, Squall, will you run this little errand for me?" The headmaster looked hopefully in Squall's direction.

"What exactly _is_ this 'errand', sir? If I may ask?" Squall asked, sounding irritated.

"I have a letter for you to give the mayor of a little town called Fisherman's Horizon," Headmaster Cid replied.

"And, I assume it won't take long?"

_Of course he doesn't want it to take long… anything requiring him to spend any time with me probably sounds like utter hell to him,_ Rinoa thought sadly.

"Oh, surely not. A couple of hours there, a couple of hours back. We already have the ship prepared for you down at the docks, in fact." He gave Squall a look suggesting that he could not possibly refuse after hearing about the ship.

Squall sighed heavily. "Fine."

The headmaster looked delighted. "Good! Here you are, there's the letter I told you about. I'd really appreciate it if you did not look at it, thanks. Now, go to the parking lot, there's a green car waiting there for you… the only green car in the lot. Drive that to the docks, and board the ship from there. Thank you two." He smiled and ushered them out of his office.

"Good luck!" Quistis called after them.

Rinoa followed Squall to the elevator, and, once they were on the first floor again, to the parking lot. They spotted the green car immediately.

"Can… can I drive?" Rinoa asked timidly.

Squall's way of replying was to get into the driver's seat and start the car. Rinoa frowned, getting in on the passenger's side. They drove to the docks and were then quickly steered to the edge of the proper dock, where they boarded some kind of ship. Squall did not speak to Rinoa through the entire process, and she stayed silent as well.

But, once they were on the ship, it was not Rinoa who broke the silence.

"Rinoa," Squall said.

She looked up, startled. "Y-yes?"

"I just wanted to let you in on a little knowledge. There will be no need to speak to me the entire time we are on this ship, or when we get to Fisherman's Horizon. Likewise, there will be no need to speak to me on the way back. I will not speak to you, either. We are here on an errand for the headmaster, so please do not treat this like it's some kind of field trip. I'm not your friend, and I don't intend on acting like it simply because we are stuck on this ship together."

When he finished his little speech, he immediately turned to the window, and Rinoa could tell he did not intend on waiting for a reply or even apologizing for being so blatantly honest. She stared at the back of his head, absolutely appalled at the rudeness with which he had just spoken. Not only that, but he had actually said more than a sentence fragment, and all at once. Plus, he had actually, for the first time ever, said Rinoa's name.

_Yeah, he said my name, and then he said the meanest thing anyone has ever said to me._ Her thoughts briefly turned to Seifer, and then back to her current situation._ Okay, so not the meanest. But wow… he really, truly hates me. Edward Cullen turned nice, wonderful even… but I suppose there's no hope for Squall Leonhart._

Sighing, Rinoa turned to look out her own window.

What a shame. A rainy day, wasted, and all because Squall hated her. And she had woken up with such high hopes for today… but it turned out to be a terrible, disappointing Friday.

She watched as the ocean drifted lazily by. It was surprisingly calm for a rainy day. But, it was iron gray, a perfect reflection of the tempestuous sky.

Then, surprisingly, she giggled to herself. _Tempestuous, stormy, rainy… those all pretty much mean the same thing… and _Squall_ means almost the same thing as all of them! _

She peeked over at Squall, who was staring at her, glaring, as if daring her to giggle one more time.

"Sorry," she said, quickly looking back out her window.

There was a long, drawn out silence. She giggled again. She just couldn't handle silence.

Squall sighed, obviously annoyed. "Do you have to giggle every three seconds?"

"Yes," Rinoa told him truthfully.

"Well, stop. It's childish and annoying."

"You might try laughing every once in a while too!" Rinoa burst out, before she could stop herself.

Squall glared at her. "Whatever. I told you I wasn't going to talk to you, so please be quiet now."

"You're the one who talked to _me_, buddy," Rinoa pointed out.

Squall stayed silent.

Rinoa looked back out her window.

This was going to be a long trip.

**okay, so i'm really really ridiculously proud of this chapter. i don't know if anyone else feels the same... but yeah i like it. it's the longest one since the first chapter, woohoo! but.. that could just be because of the Twilight excerpt... i wanted to put a slanty face right there but i don't think it'll come out ... and... i can't help but think of Dumbledore when i write anything and say "headmaster"...anyway, review review review review!! and... hooray for today being friday and for EilayAdnayVoilay's three-day weekend, which means that she might possibly update Addicted! ridiculously excited for _that_!! anyway, review!!!!!! **

**P.S. i've noticed that now that i've started to _tell_ you to review, you don't review. so i think on the next chapter, i won't say it. lol.**


	8. Fisherman's Horizon

**I've got some good ideas for this chapter... so, enjoy!**

**disclaimer- I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or the characters or the places or any of that good stuff.**

Squall had been sitting in the same position for (he checked his watch) exactly seventy-three minutes. Not only that, but he was starting to get real tired of the deep breathing noises coming from the sleeping girl next to him. And, to make matters even worse, he was now facing an entire day with said sleeping girl: the one and only Rinoa-whatever-her-last-name-was.

_As if this day wasn't already a complete waste,_ he thought, rolling his eyes. _Ugh, I need to get out of this ship!_

So, he got up and went to look outside. From the south side of the ship, he could see the ocean laid out in front of him. He took a moment to revel in the utter vastness of it, and realized how very small he was in the whole scheme of things. Out on the open ocean, Squall felt like one grain of sand compared to the entire beach.

As he stared out at the horizon, he slowly began to notice a small change. It wasn't as smooth as it had been; there appeared to be a small lump right in the middle. Gradually, that lump got bigger and more pronounced, and he realized it was a very tiny island in the middle of the ocean.

_Random_, he thought.

Then, the ship he was on slowed down and came to a stop at that island.

This_ is Fisherman's Horizon? Huh. Kind of anti-climactic. I thought it would be bigger. _

From his view on the ship, Squall thought the island looked rather out of place. It was so hard to tell if there was land under all the little buildings that it looked as if someone just chose a stretch of water to float some houses and a few docks on. There were tall, crane-type things around the edges of it, and an old man was sitting on one of them fishing. He looked down at Squall, waving happily. Squall nodded his head.

_Time to wake up the _princessSquall thought, already irritated. Just the thought of all the conversations she would inevitably try to start made Squall frown deeply. But, he had to admit, she would come in handy; he wouldn't be able to deal with all the people they'd have to talk to. So, he walked into the boat, only to find that it was empty.

_Great! She's run off somewhere, probably doing something stupid, and now _I_ have to find her._

He slowly walked back out onto the deck of the ship and got off, looking around for Rinoa. He saw a light blue duster disappearing between two buildings and took off after it. He stopped, however, when he wound up in a completely open square with no Rinoa to be found.

"Rinoa, we don't have time for this!" he called out, hoping, for the first time ever, that she was close enough to hear what he was saying.

"Time for what?" a voice said right next to his ear.

Squall turned on the spot. "Time for you to be running around acting like this is a theme park. We're here on an errand from the headmaster; I have no time to be babysitting you," Squall told her.

"Stop being such a big meany! I got off to stretch my legs, okay? What, do I have to check in with you before I can get off of the ship?" She stared challengingly at Squall, and he stared right back at her. "Now come on. Let's go find the stupid mayor so we can go back to Balamb; I'm tired of all your negative energy."

Squall sighed, annoyed. "Well, it's your job to find the mayor anyway. You're the one with the people-skills."

"Clearly," she said simply, before walking ahead of him.

_Why can't she just be one way all the time?_ Squall thought. _She has to waste her time with pointless mood swings, as if it's my business what she's thinking or feeling. I'd rather be back at that Halloween party than be stuck here with her!_

"Are you coming or _not_?" Rinoa asked, making him realize that he hadn't moved an inch since she had stepped ahead of him.

His reply was to start walking.

She trotted along next to him, almost unable to keep up with his quick pace. They walked up a flight of stairs, then across a walkway, then down another flight of stairs, and eventually reached a man standing next to a lift that they were to take. He didn't look much older than Squall himself.

"Excuse me, sir?" Rinoa said politely to the man.

He looked at her as he pushed the button to make the lift go down. "Yes?"

"Could you tell me where the mayor lives? We've got urgent business for him."

He smiled a little too kindly. "After you go down this lift, just head straight. Keep walking straight and you'll find a long flight of stairs leading down to a house. That's his house."

"Thank you!" she said, as the lift came to a slow halt.

She skipped off of the lift and started in the direction the man had indicated, and this time Squall was the one who had to trot. They soon found the long flight of stairs, and walked down it, coming upon a big, wooden house. It looked slightly shabby from the outside, and Squall wondered if maybe Rinoa hadn't led them to the wrong house.

"Did you take a wrong turn or something?" he asked her, unable to help himself.

"No. We went straight the whole time," she replied, sounding bitter.

"You sure?"

"Why don't you knock and we'll find out," she said scornfully.

Squall sighed, reaching for the iron knocker hanging from the door, and knocked three times.

A very joyous looking man wearing a brightly-colored Hawaiian shirt opened the door.

Squall stared at him blankly.

"Yes?" the man said good-humouredly.

"Hi, sir! We're students from Balamb Garden— are you the mayor?" Rinoa inquired.

"Yes, young lady, I am Mayor Dobe! Come in, come in, how's Cid?" He opened the door widely and pulled Squall and Rinoa inside. The inside of the house, much unlike the outside, was happy and inviting, if not a little crowded.

_That's the mayor?_ Squall thought, perplexed. _Oh… the letter!_

"Sir… we have this letter for you from the Headmaster," he told the mayor.

"Yes, I've been expecting this, of course," Mayor Dobe told them, grinning jovially. The sound of footsteps on stairs caught their attention. "Oh, and that's my wife, Flo!" he added, gesturing toward a blonde lady who was coming toward them.

"Honey, who's this?" she asked, sounding slightly wary of the visitors.

"Students from Balamb Garden," the mayor replied.

"Balamb? That mercenary school? I don't want you kids causing any trouble in this town, all right? This town is strictly non-violence. We like to talk things out here." She glared steadily, first at Squall and then at Rinoa.

_This lady has some serious issues._

"Uhh, n-no… ma'am. We're just here delivering a message. I like peace!" Rinoa explained.

_Why is she stuttering like that? She shouldn't put up with it._

"Mm," was Flo's reply.

"Well, uhh… the letter's delivered… and… we have to get back to school…" Rinoa said tentatively.

_Wait… we're going to leave? This is great!_

"Going so soon?" Mayor Dobe asked sadly. "Well, try your best to stop at all the shops on the way out! And, there are an awful lot of nice people here with some great stories to tell. Fishermen always have the best stories. Give Cid my best wishes, and tell him I'll send him the reply soon. Have a safe trip home!" he added.

"Thank you, sir, we will, and we'll try to stop in at some of the shops on the way out. Good bye!" Rinoa said, as they exited the house.

"That lady was rude," Squall said as they walked back up the long flight of stairs. "She had no right to treat us like that based on the school we attend."

Rinoa stared at him in disbelief. "Yeah… but, I thought we weren't talking?" she reminded him smugly.

_Damn._

"I… we're not. I was just saying… she was unnecessarily rude." He snapped his mouth shut.

Rinoa giggled softly.

_Again?_

Squall glared at her, trying his best to put every ounce of his irritation into the glare so she would know that he was serious about not talking.

She merely giggled again.

"May I ask why you won't stop _giggling_?" He said.

"Yes," she replied.

He blinked. _Is she trying to be funny by answering that question instead of telling me why she's being so annoying?_ Squall thought. _Oh my gosh… can't we just get home already?!_

"Okay, fine. It's just, you make the most hilarious face when you're being so serious like that… well, it's the same face you always make, really. But it's funny! Because it's like… you want everyone in the world to die so you can just be alone with your thoughts." She giggled again.

"…whatever," Squall replied.

Rinoa giggled, yet again.

_I don't have the patience for this._

"If you're going to laugh, you might as well actually laugh instead of giggling. It's less annoying that way," Squall pointed out.

Rinoa shrugged. "Well, I'll just stop giggling then, your highness."

"Whatever," Squall said again. "So, can we get back on the ship now? I want to go home."

"Aww, we can't look at the shops? But I—"

"Look," Squall interrupted, "I just want to go home."

"But we're never going to get the chance to be here again! Come _on_ it'll be fun!" Rinoa pleaded.

_It'll be _fun Squall thought skeptically._ No it won't! I don't even know why I'm speaking to her in the first place… there's no _way_ I'm going to go into some _shop_ with her._

"You can go… but you can find another way home if you do," he told her.

Her face fell. "Fine," she sighed, "I'll just come back some other day." She slowly walked toward the lift, her shoulders slumped and her feet dragging.

Squall sighed heavily. _Why does she have to look so sad about it? It's not like I care. But, then again… if I don't let her go to the stupid shops she'll complain about it the entire way back. That's seventy-three more minutes I'll have to endure!_

"Rinoa," Squall said simply.

She whirled around hopefully, her brown eyes lighting up.

He sighed, already regretting what he was about to do. "We can go to the shops. Let's… just hurry, okay? We need to get home," he said blandly.

She sprinted over, stopping inches from him, and threw her arms around his neck in a huge hug.

Squall froze.

_What the hell?! Why is she hugging me?!_ he thought.

What he said was, "What the hell?! Why are you hugging me?!"

She let go of his neck and stepped back three or four feet. "Because, one time I promised myself that if you ever said anything that wasn't mean, I'd give you a huge hug… or something like that. Now c'mon, let's go!" she chirruped, sounding a lot like her hyper friend.

Squall sighed for what felt like the millionth time, following her as she skipped off happily.

"Oooh!" she exclaimed, when they made it inside of a little shop filled with all sorts of trinkets and toys. "Look, Squall!" She pointed to some contraption. He had no idea what it was, but it didn't look interesting.

_Why is she treating me like this? Like we're friends? Didn't I already tell her we're not? That this isn't a field trip? I should have never let her come to this shop. I should have thought ahead, and realized that she would do this._

"We should get going," Squall pointed out.

"Already?! We've only been to one shop… and we've only been here for like, three minutes! Squall, at least let me see two more, come _on_!"

It was like he was the strict parent and she was the four year old who wanted to stay at the carnival a little longer. Squall rolled his eyes at this thought.

"Okay, fine. Two more shops, that's it. Then we have to _go_."

Four shops and three conversations with fishermen later, Squall was pulling Rinoa by the wrist in the direction of the lift. He really didn't feel comfortable with this; he knew exactly what people were probably thinking as they saw the two walk by, not to mention the fact that he could _hear_ the things they were saying.

"Squall!" Rinoa was protesting, "I was right in the middle of watching that adorable little boy fish! He was so good at it too, he didn't even hit anyone or break any windows that time! Just let me go back!"

"No! We have to get home!" he replied, hating how many words he was being forced to speak today.

They went up the lift (with a genuinely sad, "Hate to see you leave so soon!" in Rinoa's direction from the lift runner) and over to where the boat was docked…

Except that the boat wasn't there.

Squall stopped dead in his tracks and turned around quickly, looking at every single dock he could find.

The ship was nowhere to be seen.

"Squall? Where's our ship?" Rinoa asked quietly.

He looked around some more. "I have no idea. Come on!" He ran back in the direction of the lift, not caring whether Rinoa was keeping up with him or not.

"Back so soo—"

"Hurry up, please!" Squall cut the lift operator off.

"Yes, sir," he replied, just as Rinoa was making it onto the lift, panting.

In record time they made it down to level ground, and Squall sprinted off in the direction of the other docks. He came to a skidding halt when he finally caught sight of their ship… but his worries were not alleviated one bit when he noticed that it was being pulled apart by a lot of men in blue jumpsuits.

"Hey!" he yelled angrily, "what are you doing to the ship?!"

"This ship?" the jumpsuited man gestured down at the large chunks of metal at his feet. "Fixin' it! It wouldn't start… so we thought we fixed up all nice, and then it just sort of… died. It'll need at least a week's work, I think."

"A _week_?!" Squall exclaimed, just as Rinoa was catching up to where he stood, clutching at her side.

"Geeze, Squall, this isn't a marathon, you know!" she told him. "Squall? What's the matter?" she asked after he just stayed in the same position for a while.

"A week," he repeated.

"A week for what?"

"We have to stay… in this town… for a _week_."

"What?! Why?" Rinoa asked, sounding shocked.

"The ship. It's broken," Squall replied dryly.

_A week with Rinoa. A _week_! I hate Fisherman's Horizon!_

**Muahahaha! So, I hope you liked that chapter. I dunno... I kind of like the direction it's headed in... we'll just have to wait and see what happens next, eh? Sorry it was short, but I'm sure you didn't expect it to be long anyway. So, review... annnd, yeah. Isn't it weird how I'm capitalizing things? I'm doing this huge report on preisdent Franklin Delano Roosevelt so I had to get used to capitalizing things and yeah. I wish smiley faces worked on here...**


	9. One Room

**well... i've been having a lot of trouble with this chapter. i'm talking a _lot_ of trouble! but, i'm trying my best. thank you thank you THANK you to the few of you who reviewed the previous chapter. there weren't many who seemed to like it, but that's okay. i write for myself, mostly, not to entertain others. although it _is_ nice when it _does_ entertain others, of course. (and i hope that didn't sound mean, i promise i'm not a mean person!) enjoy. **

**disclaimer- FF8 is not mine, it's SquareSoft's, actually. how _nice_.**

Rinoa sat on the very edge of the bed, one leg folded underneath herself, and stared at the wallpaper. It was the kind of ugly pattern that only hotel rooms had: a million little tulip-type flowers, all merrily splayed across the wall. It was the kind of thing she thought Selphie might enjoy; Rinoa, however, loathed it.

She looked around the room for what felt like the nineteenth time that evening. There was nothing in it that even remotely suggested cheeriness— save for the ugly tulips. What was worse was that this room was not Rinoa's alone; it was a room she would have to share with Squall, because they hadn't been able to pull enough money together for two separate rooms.

_Lucky for us there are two beds in here. Otherwise… I'd make Squall sleep on the floor. _She grinned. _Or in the bathtub…_ _Where is he, anyway? _she added as an afterthought.

She had been waiting for him to get back for at least an hour. He had left, mumbling something about food, and calling the headmaster. The funny thing was that there was a phone on the desk, and it didn't take an hour to get food when there were plenty of places nearby. Rinoa thought he probably just wanted an excuse to spend as little time with her as possible— and that was fine by her. It wasn't as if they were _friends_, she kept reminding herself, that random act of kindness from earlier was just his way of saying, "I want you to complain as little as possible on the way home, so I will allow you to go the shops." Now, of course, he was back to his old, silent, moody self, except maybe even _worse_, because of the boat incident.

_No_, she reminded herself,_ not only because of the boat incident. Because I _hugged_ him, that's why!_

She felt her cheeks growing hot with embarrassment, and was glad Squall wasn't there to witness this monstrosity.

_But it was only because I promised myself I would, if he ever did something not-mean, _she reasoned with herself. _That's why. And I was happy._

In any case, she wished Squall would hurry up; she was beginning to feel like she would soon starve to death. And, she felt an odd sort of loneliness in the pit of her stomach. She needed some type of human company.

"I miss Selphie," Rinoa told the hotel room. "I need her cheeriness."

"Talking to yourself generally isn't a good sign."

Rinoa jumped at the sound of someone else's voice, and turned to see Squall standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

"Oh my gosh! " she exclaimed. "You made me jump…"

Squall merely looked at her.

"So, umm…where'd you go?" Rinoa asked, trying to make conversation. Then, she noticed the bag in his hand, and silently prayed that it was food.

Squall looked down at the hand holding the bag, as if that was a good enough answer as to where he was.

"Here," he said, thrusting it in Rinoa's general direction, before moving to his own bed.

She had to scramble frantically to catch the bag. Then, upon examining it, her spirits immediately soared.

"Food!!" she exclaimed happily.

Squall sighed. "You act like you haven't eaten in years."

"Oh come _on_ Squall, where's your sense of imagination and adventure? I keep pretending we're stranded on an island— since, well, technically, we _are_— and we have no way of getting food. Like in that book… _Lord of the Flies_! Only… without the brutality." Rinoa nodded once, satisfied with her own imagination.

Squall blinked. "…whatever."

"You're no fun!" Rinoa told him, sticking her tongue out, before turning back to the food that she couldn't wait to get her hands on. She shoved her hand into the bag and pulled out some french fries, which excited her even more. Then, she looked guiltily at Squall.

"Uhh… which of this stuff is yours?"

"None of it," he replied.

"You're not _eating_? What if you die?!"

"Please don't be so overdramatic. I'm not hungry," he told her simply.

Rinoa flushed. "I'm not being overdramatic. When you don't eat, your stomach acids feed off of your stomach lining, and pretty soon it'll eat your whole body alive. But if that's the kind of life you want to live, then it's your choice, I suppose." With that, she shoved a handful of fries in her mouth, deciding not to speak again until the rest of her meal was finished.

But with no talk, she had time to think.

_Wow… he went all the way out to— wherever he went— just to get food for _me_? What's gotten into this guy? That was almost… kind of him! I mean sure, the presentation of the food wasn't so nice… he just kind of tossed it to me, and it could have spilled all over me and the bedspread and everything… but it was still a really nice thought. And I didn't even thank him!_ Her eyes widened. How could she have been so ungrateful?

"Thunk-yoo-Shwall!" she immediately exclaimed, spraying food everywhere. In her rush to sound as grateful as possible, she had forgotten to swallow.

He nodded curtly.

Rinoa swallowed, then sighed heavily.

When she was done with her (delicious) food, she decided to have a very serious, very important talk with Squall. The problem was, how would she go about it? It was one thing for her to just talk to him, that was no problem whatsoever. No, the problem would be making him talk back.

"Squall," she started, tentatively.

He looked up at her from his place on his bed, blatant disinterest shining clearly in his blue-green eyes.

Rinoa gulped. "I have a very important matter to discuss with you, and I would like your full attention while I… elaborate." She had made sure to sound as smart as possible— she thought he probably liked things better that way. Boring. Dry. Unimaginative. Colorless.

_Terrible!_

Squall sighed, and Rinoa thought that they should have a sighing contest one day. After all, if she had a gil for each time the one of them sighed when they were together, she would currently be in her own hotel room. Or, she could have bought another boat— _Ship? Vessel?_— to take them home on.

_Be serious, Rinoa!_

"Are you going to tell me what you want to talk about, or do I have to guess?" Squall inquired moodily.

"Oh, right. Well…"

She was struggling to think of the right combination of utterly dull and unexciting words to string together.

"…we're going to be forced to spend a whole lot of time together in the next week, and—"

"— who says?" Squall interrupted.

"W-what?" He had knocked her train of thought completely off the rails. Now how would she be colorless?

"Who says we have to spend a lot of time together? There's no rule anywhere that says that when two people from the same school are stuck on an island together for a week, they have to converse."

_Converse. What an intelligent word. Couldn't he have just said "speak" or "talk"? _

"T-that's true, Squall, but we are _sharing a hotel room_, here… do you just want complete silence every night?" He was so frustrating.

His eyes lit up a fraction. "_Actually_… what's so bad about silence? Neither of us have any need— or desire— to interact with each other anyway."

_What, does he have a thesaurus in his back pocket, or something? _

"Okay, fine! Have it your way, then. But when you are starving for human company— and believe me, you will be!— don't come running to me. All I'll say if you do is… is… 'We have no desire to interact. Please remove yourself from my presence.' How's _that_ sound?" Rinoa could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. In her anger, she had forgotten to hold her tongue… (she _had, _however, managed to say a dull, intelligent sentence. There's an accomplishment!). But what right did he have to act like that?

_Like what, though?_ Rinoa asked herself. _How's he acting? He's just being… Squall. We aren't friends. We hate each other. Well, hate is a strong word… but, we aren't friends._

Squall looked at her. "…whatever."

"Why do you always have to _say_ that?" Rinoa burst out before she could stop herself.

"Say what?"

"Whatever."

"Why do you always have to act like a four-year-old?" he replied.

Rinoa's jaw dropped. "You really are something else, y'know that? And _not_ in a good way, either!" She stuck her tongue out at him for the second time that night.

_Oh yeah, great comeback, Rinoa. Great defense! He calls you childish, so you stick your tongue out at him… I really have to stop talking to myself like this._

"Exactly," Squall said smugly.

"Okay, Mr. Smarty-Pants! How 'bout _this_? If _you're_ so intent on thinking we have _no need or desire to interact with each other_, then how come you keep talking to me, huh?" Rinoa thought that was a very good comeback, and certainly a step or two up from her last one, to say the least. Not to mention there was no sticking out of the tongue, no stamping of the foot, no childish movement to speak of. One-hundred-percent seventeen-year-old-adult.

"I'm not… I wasn't… it's because you're provoking me. I don't turn down a fight," he said unpretentiously.

"Who's fighting?"

_Hah. Let's see him wriggle out of this one!_

"…I—" he started. But he wasn't quick enough with his response.

"—exactly! You know what I think? I think you secretly want to talk to me! Ah, let's see. The truth of the matter is… yes! You had enough money to buy _two_ hotel rooms! Heck, you had enough for _three_ if you wanna be frank! But… what you _also_ had was a secret longing to be my friend… so, you devised a plan! You decided that you would pretend to only have enough money for one room, because you knew I would react like this! Then, I reacted the way you had planned, thus starting our mediocre excuse for a friendship. Yes, I have you all figured out, Squall Leonhart. _I am good!_" By the end of this story, Rinoa was grinning hugely, and Squall was scowling deeply.

"You are the single most childish person I have ever met. You beat out Zell… whatever his name is, that hot dog guy… and even that hyper friend of yours! Sophie!" His cheeks were flushed with either embarrassment, anger, incredulity, or a combination of the three. Rinoa then realized that she had never seen his cheeks any color but the pale color of his skin tone… and she rather liked how it looked.

Which got her cheeks turning warm and pink as well.

"Just admit it, Squall… you want to be my friend. And her name is Selphie, not Sophie."

"Oh, really? And all this time I thought it was— oh, gosh, it doesn't matter. I'm going to sleep. Please refrain from bothering me for the rest of the night, Rinoa." As he said this, he clicked off the lamp on the desk between them, and turned in the opposite direction, facing the tulip-covered wall rather than Rinoa herself.

Rinoa frowned. "Or, if you prefer," she said, "the rest of the week."

"That's impractical," was all he said.

Rinoa immediately smiled, her eyes brightening. "Good night,_ friend_," she said simply, and turned over to face her own stretch of tulips.

She heard Squall sigh in return.

_There's one more gil!_ she thought happily.

"Oh— Squall! One more thing!" Rinoa exclaimed, clicking the light on. (She noticed that he immediately had to shield his eyes from the brightness, which amused her.)

Another sigh (gil). "What? What is it?" He sounded absolutely exasperated.

"I was just wondering… do you snore?"

He turned to face her. "No. At least, I don't think so… how should I know? I don't listen to myself sleep, Rinoa!"

Yep. He was exasperated.

"Well I was only wondering because I can't sleep when people snore. Of course, I snore myself, but only when I have a cold. Otherwise I only talk, which really isn't—"

"—can I go to _sleep_ now? Or do you not plan on shutting up for the rest of the night?"

He clicked the light off and turned over. Maybe _he _liked the tulips.

"Oh… right, sorry. Okay, good night!" Rinoa tried to be cheerful. Selphie-cheerful. Contagious-cheerful.

It didn't work.

His response was a low grunt somewhere from deep in his throat.

Well, it was better than nothing, Rinoa decided.

_He knows all these words, all these big synonyms for little words… and yet the simple term 'Good night' is not in his vocabulary? I've got a lot to teach this guy. If he'll let me, that is. That's not something I see happening in the future, though… but what if he was different? If he wasn't … Squall? Couldn't we be friends then? I'm sure… _Her thoughts jumbled. She could no longer pick out just one of them to make sense of. It was like they were all in some different language she had to decipher, and she had never been good at foreign languages…

Rinoa bit the inside of her cheek restlessly.

_Great, of all the nights to be sleepless and bored. I just need to get up and move around!_ she thought.

So, she focused all her energy on getting up as slowly and quietly as possible, so that the bed springs wouldn't squeak and wake His Majesty.

Too late.

There was the sound of bed springs, and the light turned on.

Rinoa blinked at the sudden, unexpected brightness.

"Are you going somewhere?" Squall asked her.

"Why does it matter to you? I thought you were going to sleep," Rinoa reminded him.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me, it's just that…"

_Just that what, Squall?_ Rinoa thought. _Are you concerned? Do you think your stoic _(one word Rinoa prided herself on knowing) _behavior has offended me, and I simply must get away from you? Or, are you just curious? _Rinoa considered this. _Probably the second one._

"It's just that what?" she prompted.

"Well, where on earth would you _go_ this late at night?" he replied.

_So he _is_ curious, then. No worries there. I guess that's okay._

"As you have no desire to converse with me, or whatever it was you said earlier, I don't think it would be any of your business, really."

That was such a Squall-sentence that it even startled Rinoa herself.

Squall looked taken aback, that was for sure.

"You're right. I'm going to sleep, don't wake me up when you come back in," he said simply, before turning back to face the tulips once more.

"Oh, don't mind me, I'll get the light, Your _Highness_," Rinoa said viciously, clicking it off and storming out of the room.

She had only stormed for good measure, of course.

And now, she had the whole town of Fisherman's Horizon before her… and an entire night to explore its beauty. Alone. Squall-less. Just the way she wanted it!

Wasn't it?

**i had really rather intended on that being significantly longer, but once i got going past the "wasn't it?" it just didn't seem to fit. i didn't like having anything after that. anyway, sorry that update took for_ever_ to get up, but i've been pretty busy with school and stuff. i had to write a Shakespearean Sonnet, which i've had a week to do and it's due on Tuesday (the day after tomorrow) and i've only done my first quatrain!! i'm freaking out.. but i have writer's block! anyway, tell me what you think, please. i'm not happy with this chapter really, it doesn't seem very good to me. hopefully people can prove me wrong but i doubt it. i'll try to update soon again, though.**


	10. Hiatus

**Wow, it's been a long time, hasn't it? Unfortunately, I have semi-bad news. Well, it might be bad news, it just kind of depends on how much you liked my story. I'm going to put it on hiatus for now, because I really do _not_ have time for it. And, aside from that, my brain is so completely exhausted from all the senior stuff that I have no creativity left for writing stories. I got like halfway through the newest chapter and just stopped and haven't been able to think of anything since... and that was months and months ago. Anyway, I'll try to get the story going again as soon as I find a new inspiration and some time to do stuff like this. Sorry! **


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